Kia Magic outclass Fever to maintain winning streak
Overcoming a sluggish start, Kia Magic flexed their collective muscle to outclass the West Coast Fever 65-48 in Tauranga on Sunday.
Shaking out the nerves after a slow start, Magic moved into overdrive in a stunning turnaround to maintain their unbeaten run of five from five to start the season.
After preparing in Tauranga for a week, Fever could not maintain their slick start, falling off the pace once Magic found their groove with both ends of the court working in perfect unison.
After a seamless opening quarter, everything went wrong for the team from Perth, their problems compounded by a string of basic errors as they struggled to contain the forceful play of the home team.
There were no surprises in either line-up where Magic’s 18-year-old wing defence Jamie-Lee Price got her second start of the ANZ Championship.
It was the visitors who made the best of starts, their seamless efficiency and accuracy on attack providing shooters Natalie Medhurst and Caitlin Bassett with a host of clear-cut opportunities.
Strong driving play from wing attack Chelsea Pitman produced perfect positioning on the edge of the circle as Fever took a grip on early proceedings to nose in front. Magic struggled to breach Fever’s impressive defensive trio as they continued to cough up ball in their attacking third.
Fever stretched out to a six goal advantage before closing out the opening quarter with a 17-12 lead.
The disciplined Fever continued to pose problems on the resumption, Medhurst prominent in leading their attacking raids. Under the pump, Magic were caught on the hop and struggling for answers when trailing by eight.
A couple of turnovers revitalised the Magic, who suddenly came alive with a destructive burst of eight unanswered goals as Fever began to unravel. In an action-packed second stanza, Magic found their confidence on first and second phase play to let the ball go confidently.
Shooter Jo Harten, in a spirited tussle with England team-mate Eboni Beckford-Chambers, found more space to move and her combination with Ellen Halpenny continued to improve as the pair found their range under the hoop.
Attackers Halpenny and Grace Rasmussen did some great spoiling work to gain extra turnover ball for Magic while the teenaged Price was a strong presence in a powerful Magic response where they decisively out-scored Fever 21-9 to take a healthy 33-26 lead at the main break.
In a bid to halt Magic’s momentum, Fever switched Ashleigh Brazill from wing defence to centre while Shae Bolton slotted into wing defence from the bench in replace of Khao Watts for the second half.
It did little to deter the home team’s continued dominance, the visitors having trouble containing Rasmussen while Harten impressed with her ability to pluck ball out of the air and provide the finishing touches with composure under the hoop.
At the other end, Silver Ferns defenders Casey Kopua and Leana de Bruin came into their own against the Diamonds shooting duo of Medhurst and Bassett, the Magic pair pulling off a number of intercept and rebound ball to nullify the threat.
In full control, Magic stormed out to a 14-goal goal lead before Fever repaired some of the damage when they trailed 49-38 at the last break.
