Magic 55
Vixens 48
The Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic have knocked the Melbourne Vixens from their perch atop the transtasman league ladder with one of their most comprehensive performances.
The Magic dealt the classy Vixens their first loss of the year in Tauranga last night to snatch the top spot in the standings by virtue of goal differential.
The Vixens, perhaps struggling with umpiring interpretations in their first trip to New Zealand this year, did not play with the confidence and fluency of the opening nine rounds.
But the Magic earned this win. They prevented the Vixens from playing their natural game.
With the Vixens disjointed in attack, coach Julie Hoornweg made changes to midcourt every quarter to counter the clever Magic defence, led by the brilliant Casey Williams.
But Williams put the performance down to a complete team effort, recovering from a patchy start to assert their dominance late in the game.
"I'm absolutely over the moon about that - it was our biggest match of the season and to come away with a win against a team like that after doing some silly things early on is just awesome," said Williams.
Williams faced her biggest test in the relatively new position of goal-defence, facing Australian captain Sharelle McMahon, widely regarded as one of the best players in the league.
Williams admits she was often beaten for pace by the athletic shooter, but felt she still held her own.
"There were times when she absolutely ditched me, but I had just to let that go and make sure I got the next one and keep getting inside her head," said Williams.
The lofty defender said her side's performance would serve them well for the couple of tough away matches across the Tasman still to come.
With both sides packed with world-class talent, the match between the two competition frontrunners was always expected to be an enthralling duel, and the on-court battle did not disappoint.
Irene van Dyk, who faced a stern test against the all-Australian defensive pairing of Bianca Chatfield and Julie Corletto, missed only one goal.
After leading 25-22 at halftime, the Magic produced a strong burst in the final five minutes of the third quarter.
This was the decisive period in the match, the home side scoring off a flurry of turnovers to take a six-goal lead into the final break.
Comfortably ahead, the Magic let the ball go with confidence in the final period, ensuring the Vixens did not get a look in.
The opening period was punctuated by sloppy passages of play and basic errors from the home side.
Errant passing from the Magic attack line was a particular concern, balls sailing out of court seemingly as often as they reached their player.
If not for sterling work on defence by Williams, Leana de Bruin and Joline Henry, the Magic could have found themselves well down at the first break, but instead led 12-11.
The messy opening quarter behind them, the Magic took advantage of an out-of-sorts Vixens attack to lead 25-22 at halftime.
But it was the third-quarter scoring burst that finished off the visitors.
