Game Detail // ANZ Championship 2008

Round Name: Round 10 Starting Date: 7/6/2008

Team			v	Team		Location	Date/Time
	» Mystics	62	v.	» Swifts	63	The Trusts Stadium Arena, Auckland	09/06/2008 7:00 PM

	SKY Sport Time:	19:00
	Umpire 1:	Bronwyn Meek
	Umpire 2:	Mandy Nottingham
	Reserve Umpire:	Jonathon Bredin

Game Report:

The NSW Swifts met the double challenge of playing extra time away from home with a courageous and classy defeat of the LG Northern Mystics 63-62 in Auckland this evening.

Tight and focused Mystics defence could not shake the Swifts� outstanding shooting combination Susan Pratley (100% for the game) and Catherine Cox (90%), who positioned themselves brilliantly for the quality ball delivered by Vanessa Ware, Kimberlee Green and Selina Gilsenan.

The Mystics were scarcely inferior, with Temepara George floating beautifully weighted passes into Cathrine Latu who never wavered under pressure, took almost three-quarters of her teams� goal attempts and made 92% of them.

However, the Mystics made forced and unforced errors at stages of the game when they proved most expensive, while the Swifts staunchly pulled an eight-goal deficit back to three goals during the third quarter and then levelled the score early in the final quarter. That set the stage for a thrilling finish and both teams delivered it, with a see-sawing final five minutes, followed by two tense periods of extra time.

The game opened with a 12-all quarter as neither team let the other too far off the leash, although the Mystics briefly held a four-goal lead after a classic George feed to Latu made the score 12-8 with three minutes left. Ominously, though, the Swifts responded immediately with four straight goals, three by Pratley.

In the second quarter Rebecca Bulley and Kimberley Purcell tightened up on Latu and 20-year-old Grace Rasmussen, bravely filling the goal attack position in the absence of Paula Griffin, but the Mystics pair kept pace with the Swifts shooters, who used cross-circle passes and Pratley�s elusiveness along the baseline to good effect. Some tremendous Mystics defence won them a shaky two-goal break which they held, as the Swifts threw a couple of wild passes and Cox missed a long shot which was quickly converted at the other end by Rasmussen, and took the half-time score to 25-22 in favour of the home team.

Swifts coach Julie Fitzgerald rang several changes during the break, sending Ware to the bench, moving Green to wing attack, Gilsenan to centre, Bulley to goal defence, and Purcell to wing defence, and bringing on Adelaide Johnson at goal keep. That combination stayed on court for the remainder of the match.

The Mystics, playing an efficient zone defence, began the third quarter strongly, as Latu scored three unanswered goals before Cox replied. Mystics coach Yvonne Willering almost smiled when the score hit 34-26 in the eighth minute, but the NSW side scored the next three goals, and steadily worked their way back to 35-38 by the end of the period.

The first two minutes of the fourth quarter proved crucial as the Mystics gave away possession that was coolly converted by Cox and Pratley. The Swifts hit the front in the third minute, but a contact on George allowed Latu to level at 41-all.

In the final ten minutes both teams worked desperately for every touch of the ball. Standouts included Leana de Bruin who pressured Pratley relentlessly, Green and Gilsenan, with sparkling work around their own circle, and George who fed Latu for all she was worth. It was one such feed that levelled the score for the fourth time in the quarter at 49-all, and with twenty seconds left on the clock, the pair repeated the move for a 50-49 lead that should have sealed the match for Mystics. However, off a Swifts pass, Vilimaina Davu drew a penalty and Cox equalised to send the game into extra time.

The desperate work continued in the first period of extra time, but neither team could establish a break and the score remained level at 56-all after seven minutes.

In the second extra time period, all four shooters were magnificent under immense pressure, hitting 13 of their collective 14 shots. The difference was only that those shots were distributed 8-6 in the Swifts� favour, a margin of opportunity that finally won them a memorable match, 63-62.