Thunderbirds 44
Pulse 32
KEY POINTS:
The Central Pulse wrapped up a winless season against the Adelaide Thunderbirds last night with a performance that characterised their year - punching above their weight in patches, but looking down for the count in others.
Though the Pulse have proven competitive this season against the Kiwi sides, they have been on the receiving end of some big defeats from Australian teams.
In that sense, the loss was still a respectable scoreline for the Wellington-based side considering the names and experience in the Adelaide line-up.
The win saw the Thunderbirds cement third on the ladder earning themselves home advantage in the sudden-death play-off against the Melbourne Vixens next weekend.
They could still move in to second place, but it would take the West Coast Fever to score an unlikely upset over the NSW Swifts in last night's late game in Perth.
The match was still in progress when this edition went to print.
Despite the calibre of their opposition, the Pulse did not look overawed in the opening quarter, coming up with some big plays to trail by just one goal at the first break.
It didn't start that way though, with the Thunderbirds opening up a four-goal lead in the opening minutes. But the Thunderbirds began to stall mid-way through the spell as they struggled to get good ball in to goal-shoot Kate Beveridge.
The Pulse's defensive pairing of Kahurangi Waititi and English international Sonia Mkoloma did a superb job of confusing the space for the feeders, and, as a result, forced a lot of turnovers from the visitors' attacking end.
The Pulse displayed patience in their attacking end to whittle down the Thunderbirds' lead goal by goal and reduce Adelaide's advantage to just 11-10 at quarter time.
The Thunderbirds made a slight adjustment to their defensive end for the second spell, with Australian star Mo'onia Gerrard, who started at wing-defence, and goal-defence Bianca Reddy switching bibs.
The move tightened up the Thunderbirds' defence and the Pulse struggled to get any penetration in their attack. Even when the home side did manage to get the ball in to the circle, the shooters struggled to find their target, with youngsters Susan Tagicakibau and Jamilah Gupwell rattled by Gerrard in the goal circle.
By halftime the Thunderbirds had stretched their lead to 22-17 but coach Jane Woodlands would still have been very unhappy with the way her side were travelling, with far too many unforced errors on attack.
Whatever Woodlands said at halftime worked, with the Thunderbirds producing a 13-4 third quarter blitz to take a 35-21 lead heading in to the final spell and from there they closed out a comfortable win.
