The Steel's victory in Adelaide yesterday represented a significant moment for New Zealand sides in this year's ANZ Championship.
Before the Southern side took the court, the Mystics were walloped 70-42 by the Firebirds in Brisbane and the Pulse was embarrassed 79-41 by the Swifts in Sydney.
It continued a poor run by New Zealand teams against their transtasman foes this year, in which they had won just two out of 10 matches and had not won in Australia.
The Thunderbirds did not quite present the Steel with the same challenge yesterday as had been faced by the other Kiwi teams this weekend, but a win on Australian soil is still something to shout about.
It was just the Steel's second win in Australia in eight years and is likely to be one of the few Kiwi triumphs across the Ditch this season.
The win sets up the side's campaign nicely as it heads to a bye next weekend.
It was the Steel's second win in a row against Australian opposition after it beat the Fever in Invercargill last week and the Southern side now has a runaway lead in the New Zealand conference.
The Steel will take on the struggling Pulse and Mystics when it comes back from the bye, then meet the next-best Kiwi team, the Tactix, which has won just two matches.
Of its three remaining matches against Australian teams, the Steel will play two of them at home - the defending champion Firebirds in Dunedin and the Vixens in Invercargill - before finishing its campaign against the Swifts in Sydney.
The team also has another match against the winless Magic to look forward to in the final few rounds.
