Mystics Win, But Far From Perfect

Tuesday, 14 April 2009

It was an improvement and a win, but not spectacular. That was the best summary of the LG Mystics victory over the Central Pulse on Sunday evening in round two of the ANZ Championship netball.

The 54-50 win at the North Shore Events Centre had the Mystics leading 17-9 at the end of the first quarter with the Pulse looked heading down a well-worn track to yet another loss. But the side based out of Wellington decided to up the tempo and challenge the Mystics.

Shooters Cathrine Latu and Grace Rasmussen for the Mystics found their regular supply of well-directed ball into the circle dried up with Jamaican, Althea Byfield in the Pulse defence applying some real pressure as she hunted the ball with elevation and timing.

Camilla Lees and Ngarama Milner combined well for the visiting side in the mid court to battle Mystics midcourt maestro Temepara George and rangy disruptive wing defence Debbie White.

The ball into Silver Ferns shooter Paula Griffin and goal attack Jamilah Gupwell started to flow, and the shooters responded as the Pulse won the quarter 13-10 to trail 22-27 at halftime.

Mystics coach Te Aroha Keenan kept English international Pamela Cookey on the bench for the first half but let her loose to good effect in the second spell.

Although the change took time to gel, Cookey shouldered more of the shooting workload from Latu and provided plenty of options for the Mystics attack, although she came away with a significant bruise on her face from the match.

Cookey finished the game with a solid 88 per cent success rate, missing just two of her 16 shots on goal, while Latu nearly hit 90 per cent with 34 from 38.

George, who played the second half of the game at wing attack, was well pleased with the impression Cookey made on the game.

"It was an awesome performance actually, she's a great injection into the team, really fast, speedy and she finishes it off," she said.

George said the Mystics were happy with their strong start today, but disappointed not to apply more consistency over the whole game.

"But we didn't do it for four quarters so it's a bit disappointing on that front. We tend to deviate from what works well, rather than sticking to it. The challenge for us is to be the first Kiwi team to win in Australia."

The Pulse stormed back to win the third quarter 16-12 and go into the final 15 minutes 38-39 down.

But as the game drew to a close the home side appeared to react to some well placed words from George at the break as she stamped her authority on the team and led by example along with another solid effort in defence by Villi Davu and Steph Bond who caused all sorts of problems as the Pulse struggled in the closing quarter to find a path to the circle, and then convert the ball that made it through.

Griffin worked hard for a solid 84 per cent success rate, sinking 31 from 37 but Gupwell could only manage 19 from 25 for 76 per cent.

The next match for the Mystics is away to the Fever in Perth on Monday evening.