But the Steel will need a more convincing display at Stadium Southland this afternoon than its narrow 52-50 win to inject some momentum into its campaign.
With just two wins from seven matches, the Steel's play-off prospects appear slim.
With harder games coming up, a loss to the bottom-placed Pulse would almost certainly end its title hopes.
While the Steel will start as favourite, coach Robyn Broughton is not taking the Wellington-based side for granted.
"I think the Pulse have played well against everybody," she said.
"They are just a team that does not give up. They are nuggety and go for you. You have to have your A game and there is no way you'd take them lightly."
The Pulse is yet to register a win but has gone awfully close.
The Canterbury Tactix needed overtime to win 55-50 and the Northern Mystics pulled away in the last quarter to win 54-48.
Across the Tasman it has been a different story.
The Pulse was thrashed 28-56 by the Queensland Firebirds and 30-59 by the NSW Swifts.
The Kate Carpenter-led side will be desperate to open its account and will be well aware the Steel has not won at home.
The Otago-Southland com-bined side threw away winnable home matches against the Mystics and the Tactix, games that Broughton acknowledges her side let slip.
The Steel secured enough ball to win but missed crucial shots and was not hungry enough on defence throughout the court, she said.
The Steel has six matches left and will probably need to win five.
Broughton has thought about what it will take for her side to scrape into the play-offs but had gone back to the old adage of taking it one game at a time.
"You just have to go from game to game because you don't know what is going to happen to the opposition.
"There are three teams from Australia up there and it is going to be hard to break in to that [the top four]. So we are going to have to want every game and we're going to have to beat a couple of Australian teams to get there."
Broughton gave her players the bye week off.
She was hesitant about the bye at first but believes her side will show the benefits of its break this afternoon.
"I thought we played well against the Magic and thought we needed to build on it . . . But I can see now that it has been quite beneficial to have the rest.
"It's non-stop and they are not professional like rugby players. [Most of] the girls down here have jobs and work quite hard."
Steel v Pulse
Stadium Southland, today
Southern Steel: Megan Dehn, Daneka Wipiiti, Te Huinga Reo Selby-Rickit, Julianna Naoupu, Jess Tuki, Jenny-May Coffin, Liana Barrett-Chase, Wendy Telfer, Debbie White, Katrina Grant, Erika Burgess, Megan Hutton.
Central Pulse: Amber Bellringer, Lauren Burgess, Hayley Crofts, Candyce Edwards, Jamilah Gupwell, Cushla Lichtwark, Sonia Mkoloma, Nardia Roselli, Frances Solia, Susan Tagicakibau, Kahurangi Waititi, Neesha Wieser.
