The Steel has certainly mastered the art of the comeback.
But this time the two-time champion left its run a little too late. It was beaten 66-64 by the Northern Stars in Hamilton yesterday afternoon.
The Steel trailed for almost all the match and at one stage fell behind by 10 goals. But after a change in the shooting circle late in the third quarter, the momentum swung towards the Steel.
Jennifer O'Connell replaced Lenize Potgieter at goal shoot and almost immediately those connections, which were eluding the visiting side, began to flourish.
The Steel's feeders look much more comfortable with a tall target in the circle than the more mobile Potgieter, who had a very decent debut game for the franchise.
Those passes from Gina Crampton and Shannon Saunders were gobbled up by the taller O'Connell and the Steel went on a run.
It trailed 55-47 at the third quarter break but drew level with about four minutes remaining.
It was reminiscent of the Steel's dramatic 54-53 comeback win against the Central Pulse in the final last year.
But this time, a crucial miss from Te Paea Selby-Rickit in the final frantic moments let the win slip away.
Steel co-captain Crampton felt her side lacked intensity in the first half.
"We can't keep doing that to ourselves - being down by so much," she told the Sky Sport commentary team.
"We obviously do the fightback but we need to put ourselves in front, so it is a bit disappointing."
Stars wing attack Mila Reuelu-Buchanan made an impressive start to the fixture. She dispatched a couple of terrific passes and nabbed an intercept or two, while centre Temepara Bailey (43) turned back the clock several decades with some wonderful touches of her own.
The Steel made a series of uncharacteristic errors and fell behind by six at the first break.
It spent the first half of the second period clawing back the deficit. But some of that good work was undone by Kayla Cullen. Back from an ongoing knee injury, the wing defence came up with a crucial tip to halt the Steel's progress.
The Stars forged ahead in the third quarter, outscoring their opponent 18-13.
The Steel roared back into the game with O'Connell landing 14 from 15 attempts. But when Selby-Rickit missed, it was Cullen who scooped up the ball following what can only be described as a mad scramble. It proved to be the decisive moment of the match.
In the other games yesterday, the Mainland Tactix beat the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic 48-42 and the Central Pulse downed the Northern Mystics 62-39.
