Southern Magpies have inflicted a third loss in a row on College A, winning 61-55 in Dunedin premier grade on Saturday.
Southern showed its intentions early, coming out of the blocks firing and pushed out to an early lead, with College chasing right from the word go.
Southern wing attack Zoey Flockton was finding good space against her sister, Renaye, at wing defence and was passing long and early to Jen O'Connell at GS allowing Southern to lead at the first break 17-12.
The ever reliable combination for College of Jamie Hume and Olivia Bates started to work their way into the game as better quality ball was provided by their midcourt.
Southern was down going into halftime after a blistering second quarter from College as its attack end started to click into gear, outscoring Southern by 12 goals and leading 31-24.
The start of the third quarter saw Southern scoring a couple of quick fire goals to bridge the gap but College withstood the pressure and maintained its lead right up until third quarter time, when the teams were tied on 42 goals each.
In a physical final spell, both teams gave their all to secure the win, but once Southern regained the lead with just under 12 minutes to go, it did not look back and finished with a comfortable margin.
College A coach Lauren Piebenga said there were no excuses for her team's poor performance.
''We have just lost our flow on court a bit, our connections aren't what they should be and we are making errors at crucial times which we can't afford to do,'' she said.
''We need to go back to the drawing board, have a bit of soul searching, and pick ourselves up.''
Southern coach Georgie Salter was pleased with the win.
''It is starting to click out there. As a team they really wanted to win and they all did what was asked of them, which was great,'' Salter said.
''Now we just need to consolidate and push forward. We are starting to build a great team culture, which is important, and they are building just at the right time.''
In the round's other games, Southern Tui edged out University Albion B, 60-55 while University Albion squeaked home to beat Phys Ed A in the dying minutes of the game by one goal, 54-53.
By Jaimie Keay.
