By RICHARD BOOCK
North Harbour's Rangitoto Force reinforced their position at the top of the national netball league last night after coming from behind to beat the lowly Otago Rebels 54-42.
The Force arrived in Dunedin unbeaten at the halfway stage of the league, but were forced to pull out all stops to overpower the Rebels after making a woeful start in the chilly southern temperatures.
Behind 9-12 at the first-quarter break and on even terms at 20-20 at halftime, the Force were able to gain a measure of dominance through the second half, winning the final two quarters.
On a night in which all matches ended as expected, the winless Rebels threatened to stage the biggest fifth-round boilover, although the second-to-last Cometz turned in a courageous effort to take the Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic to the wire.
The Magic eventually won 55-51 to move into second place on the table behind the Force.
But the Cometz would have taken no small satisfaction from gaining a bonus point for the narrow loss, their first of the competition so far.
The Canterbury Flames were another to make a move up the ladder overnight, overwhelming the Auckland Diamonds 59-40 to shift into third place and preserve their unbeaten record in the competition after four games.
With former Silver Fern Julie Seymour on board, the Flames struggled for the initiative at first, leading 13-11 after the opening quarter, but swamped their hosts 15-7 and 16-9 in the next two periods to lead 44-27 at the three-quarter mark.
In the other match of the round the defending champions Sting bounced back from last weekend's surprise loss against the Shakers to over-run the Western Flyers 68-44 in New Plymouth.
While everything went as expected last night, results are much tougher to predict for tomorrow's sixth-round matches, with the Force and the Sting going head-to-head in Invercargill, the Magic hosting the Flames in Tauranga, and the Diamonds travelling down to New Plymouth to take on the Flyers.
The only match which seems to have a clear favourite will be in Papatoetoe.
There the Cometz are expected to struggle against Wellington's Capital Shakers.
Netball: Rebels give Force a shove
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