Swifts 57
Magic 56
KEY POINTS:
Despite knocking over the Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic in the major semifinal, NSW Swifts captain Catherine Cox believes it will be the New Zealand side standing between them and the inaugural transtasman title in the final in two weeks time.
If that proves to be the case, yesterday's thriller was one hell of a dress rehearsal.
In a match of see-sawing fortunes, the Swifts ran out one-goal winners in front of a feverish crowd packed in to Hamilton's Mystery Creek Events Centre.
After trailing by six goals heading in to the final spell, the Magic produced a stirring comeback to level the score with around two minutes remaining. The home side had the chance to take the lead with the centre pass to follow, but a timely intercept by centre Kimberlee Green put the Swifts back in charge and they had the composure to close out the match.
The Magic will battle it out with the winner of tonight's match between the Adelaide Thunderbirds and Melbourne Vixens for the remaining place in the final.
Cox believes it will be the Magic they meet in the grand final.
"No question, absolutely," Cox responded when asked if they expect to meet the Magic in Sydney in two weeks time.
"You can't ignore a side that has six Silver Ferns in it and they've showed in the last couple of weeks they're finding form at the right time so we fully expect to see them in the final."
Magic coach Noeline Taurua blamed her side's lacklustre third quarter effort as the reason for the loss.
"I don't know if we didn't adapt or what, but it was sort of like the lights were off," she said.
"We made a really good comeback in that final quarter and I thought we had done it. But if you look at our overall performance we really didn't deserve to win it anyway, even if we would have liked to."
Taurua opted to continue the experimentation at the shooting end with Irene van Dyk starting at goal-attack and Maria Tutaia shifting back to goal-shoot after the ploy proved successful against the Tactix last week.
It was a risky move against the Swifts. The NSW side were a different proposition altogether, and wily coach Julie Fitzgerald had ample time to prepare for the switch.
The Magic attack end were finding a lot of space and clearly more comfortable with the switch in shooting duties in the opening half. But as the match wore on the Swifts' defence end shut the home side down.
Both sides made a fairly tepid start to the match, with the game going goal-for-goal in the first period, with the Swifts holding a narrow 16-15 lead at the first break.
The Magic defenders had the usually clinical and slick Swifts attack end rattled in the second period, with the back trio of Casey Williams, Jodi Tod and Joline Henry forcing numerous turnovers from the visitors. And with the Magic's own attack end gelling superbly, they ensured any mistake from the Swifts went punished.
A one-goal deficit at the first break was quickly overturned by the home side and by mid-way through the period they had built a handy five-goal lead at 28-23. But the Swifts midcourt defence kicked it up a notch as the period wore on, and the Magic were unable to inject the same speed through the court, which led to break-downs in their attacking third. By halftime the Swifts had reduced the deficit to two.
The wheels completely fell off the Magic's attack end following the resumption and the Swifts quickly re-claimed the lead, scoring the first eight goals.
Spurred on by a desperate defensive effort and a boisterous home crowd, the Magic mounted a late charge to close the gap to two with three minutes remaining.
* Casey Williams was named MVP of the ANZ Championship.
