West Coast Fever showed their grit and dug deep to recover from a nine-point deficit and record an impressive 69-54 win over Sunshine Coast Lightning away from home in Round 3 of the Suncorp Super Netball season.
Captain Courtney Bruce was inspirational in defence with five intercepts and seven gains, helping to turn the tide after a slow start that saw Lightning Goal Shooter Cara Koenen score 15 goals in the first quarter as the Lightning built a 21-12 lead at the first break.
Bruce, alongside Stacey Francis-Bayman at the defensive end, stepped up and shut down Koenen’s influence, restricting her to just 13 more goals for the remainder of the game.
Her efforts helped Fever draw level at half time and then build a nine-goal advantage at three-quarter time before going on to record a resounding 15-goal win.
“Credit to Sunshine Coast, they came out firing and we just weren’t playing to our standards,” Bruce said.
“Stace (coach Stacey Marinkovich) just went back at quarter time and said we know what to do ... get out there and play, and we did that.
“I just wanted to contest the ball cleanly and I think that all my intercepts and deflections come from the hard work that Stace (Francis-Bayman), Jess (Anstiss) and Vez (Verity Charles) do up in front of me, they really set me up well.”
Charles (23 assists) and Emma Cosh (20) were both damaging through the mid court, with Charles displaying the passing skills that saw her selected in the Australian Diamonds squad and Cosh slicing through the defence with great speed and agility.
They were well supported by another strong game at Wing Defence by Jess Anstiss, who continued to work hard and put her body on the line.
Sasha Glasgow entered the game in the second quarter and also played an important role in the win, scoring consecutive Suncorp super-shots to put Fever in front just before half time.
She combined well with Jhaniele Fowler to add 12 goal assists to her stats sheet from 19 feeds.
Fowler was again superb in attack, proving too much for the Lightning defenders to handle as she scored 59 goals at 97 per cent to finish the game with 107.5 Nissan Net Points.
