Southern Steel goal shoot Daneka Wipiiti grabs the ball
watched by Canterbury Tactix goal keep Anna Galvan during
their ANZ Championship warm-up match at the Edgar Centre on
Saturday. Photo by Peter McIntosh.
Better this week than next. That was Steel coach Robyn
Broughton's attitude after her team slumped to a 58-51 defeat
by the Canterbury Tactix in a warm-up match at the Edgar Centre
on Saturday.
Last year's minor semifinalist was expected to be too strong
for the Tactix in its last pre-season action before its
opening ANZ Championship game against the West Coast Fever on
Sunday.
But it was the visitors who were hungrier, and they fought
their way to a well-earned seven-goal win.
Experienced centre and new Tactix captain Maree Bowden led
from the front with some superb work in the midcourt.
Her combination with goal attack Anna Thompson was slick, and
promising goal keep Charlotte Kight gave an athletic
performance and disrupted the Steel's supply of ball.
Kight had an injury scare towards the end of the first
quarter but returned to court for the final 15min period.
The Steel had its best period early in the match, shooting
out to a 5-1 lead.
But the home side soon showed signs of fatigue from a busy
pre-season campaign which has seen it play 19 games on both
sides of the Tasman in the last five weeks.
"We have been training quite hard and the travel has been
hard," Broughton said.
"But we shouldn't have been that tired. We were too loose on
[defence] and we weren't looking after our loose ball. We
weren't running as hard for the loose ball, so we need to
tidy that up this week."
The Steel clung to a 16-15 lead at the first-quarter break
but the Tactix had the better of the remainder of the match,
winning the next three quarters 14-10, 12-11 and 17-14.
The Steel midcourt lacked its usual zip with classy wing
attack Liana Barrett-Chase absent due to illness.
Steel skipper Megan Dehn donned the wing attack bib but
looked out of place, and Wendy Frew had an off game, throwing
away possession with some poorly directed passes.
The Steel also lost a lot of ball on the fringe of the
shooting circle and lacked finesse and, at times, patience on
attack.
"It was just a bad day at the office, really," Broughton
said.
"They have to realise you can't afford to have off days. We
really did not look after the turnover ball. We weren't
patient enough."
Earlier in the day, the Steel had a 42-27 win over the Otago
Lois Muir Challenge team.
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