Vixens 53 Fever 56
MELBOURNE - Melbourne Vixens' transtasman netball season continued its free-fall at Hisense Arena with a shock 56-53 loss to lowly West Coast Fever to put their title defence in peril.
The defeat was the Vixens third straight, after starting the ANZ Championship season so brightly with five successive wins.
At half-time Melbourne looked in control, up 35-30, but a third-quarter blitz by the Fever, who have only won one other match this season, turned the game around and they levelled at 41-41 heading into the final break.
With just over four minutes remaining the Fever hit the front for the first time in the match, 51-50, and managed to maintain the lead in a thrilling count-down to the final hooter.
West Coast's gun goal-shooter Caitlin Bassett, who is the competition's leading scorer, maintained her composure and continued to find the mark to seal the biggest upset of the competition so far this year.
With gun centre Natasha Chokljat still sidelined with a calf injury, Melbourne started their third centre in as many games, with Wendy Jones getting the nod.
The troublesome midcourt looked a lot more settled with Jones, a former Australian player and 10-year veteran who missed last season after a knee reconstruction, at the helm.
However Jones, who usually plays wing attack, was rested at half-time with promising young Diamonds representative Renae Hallinan shifted from goal defence to centre.
While Hallinan played well enough, the move didn't pay off for coach Julie Hoornweg and appeared to unsettle the line-up.
They had started well enough as they scooted away to a 17-12 lead after the first quarter, and that blew out to nine goals midway through the second period only for the visitors to again peg it back to five at the main break.
Shooter Caitlin Thwaites and goal attack Sharelle McMahon looked on-song in the opening half but became rattled as the match wore on.
"I think in those last few moments I think they just wanted it more than we did," Hallinan said.
"We need to find that belief in ourselves again, we know that we can do it."
Bassett backed up her 50-goal haul in their loss to the Queensland Firebirds last round with a superb 46 goals from 49 attempts.
Thwaites was the Vixens' best, slotting 35 from 43 while McMahon produced an uncustomary 18 goals from 27 attempts, shooting at a lowly 67 per cent.
Bassett, who has three test caps, said she was thrilled with the win.
"We've had a lot of close losses so I think we proved we can close out a match," she said.
"I'm so proud of the girls."
Vixens coach Hoornweg, meanwhile, described the performance as the worst she had been involved with and told the team a few "home truths" post-match.
"That's the worst performance we've ever put out on the court, only because I felt the other team wanted the ball more than we do and that's not just a Vixens way of playing the game," she said.
She said the team was still training well but it wasn't transferring to the court.
"Poor skills and poor shooting, that will do it to you every time," Hoornweg said.
"Things that we pride ourselves on are not holding us up at the moment."
- AAP
