KEY POINTS:
It was the most fitting finish to the closest battle of the year - the Sting's veteran shooter Donna Wilkins tipping the ball into the goal in the last second to cement the Sting a place in their 10th straight national netball league final.
In a stunning, see-sawing encounter, the Sting rewarded their coach of a decade, Robyn Broughton, and their southern fans with a victory over defending champions the Magic in Invercargill last night.
When the Sting play the Force in next Friday's final in Auckland, they will have appeared in every final in National Bank Cup history.
Broughton, who will coach her 100th game with the Sting next week, was breathless after the win, but she said she never doubted her side would win.
The Magic, victors for the past two seasons, could only stare at the court in disbelief as a finals spot was tipped from their grasp in the dying seconds.
In front of a roaring crowd, Sting were determined to claim an advantage in the first quarter, but took a good five minutes to settle into the game. Magic goal keep Casey Williams was quick on her toes from the first whistle, and looked to have the measure of the Sting's dominant shooter Daneka Wipiiti. But once Wipiiti and shooting partner, Wilkins, clicked into their regular rhythm, the Sting's three-goal deficit turned into a lead of four.
Wipiiti, who has been adopted as a Southlander in her first season with the Sting, was willing to fire shots from everywhere - even in mid-air outside the court.
But in the second spell, the persistent combination of Williams and goal defence Joline Henry pressured Wipiiti into some rash shots she couldn't sink, and the Magic were able to convert the turnovers into goals.
With Irene van Dyk well fed by the attacking trio of Tanya Lund, Anna Stanley and Laura Langman, the Magic drew level and were down by only one, 23-22, at halftime.
With Wipiiti virtually enveloped by the Magic defence, the responsibility fell on Wilkins - one of the most experienced netballers in the competition and a 10-year veteran of the Sting - to take up the shooting load.
And she responded in typical feisty fashion, stealing intercepts, wrestling ball from Henry and Williams and shooting it with unerring accuracy.
Van Dyk didn't have it all her own way under the post.
It was Sting goal keep Megan Hutton's last home game before she heads to Britain on her OE, and she threw herself into it, hunting the ball in every corner of her defensive third, and getting under the feet of van Dyk.
Neither side could break away in an intense third quarter, where the difference remained at a single goal.
Ten minutes from time, the Magic grabbed a three-goal advantage, but through the tenacity of Wilkins and outstanding wing attack Adine Wilson, the game was tied up again in the final seconds.
It was an intercept from Hutton, then another by Sting goal defence Jenny Ferguson, that turned the tide the Sting's way, and the game could not have finished more aptly than with Wilkins basketball-style tip-in the final second, before she slid across the floor in exultation.
Sting 48
Magic 46
