Southern Steel: 41
Having been eliminated from the ANZ Championship title race, the Northern Mystics ruined the Southern Steel's prospects of making the play-offs with a 47-41 win at the North Shore Events Centre in Auckland last night.
The Otago-Southland combined side was hanging on to a faint glimmer of hope it could force its way into the semifinals.
But the Swifts 51-41 victory over the Thunderbirds in Sydney last night ended a remote mathematical possibility of survival.
Steel captain Jenny May-Coffin was left bitterly disappointed with the six goal loss.
"Right from the word go we were on the back foot. [I'm] pretty angry about it, actually," she said.
"We practised these things coming into the game but we just couldn't put them on to the court. The Mystics made it tough for us, but I think we lost that game rather than they won it off us."
The Steel had been building nicely with three consecutive victories, but could not find a way past the Mystics' formidable defensive duo of Leana de Bruin and Vilimaina Davu.
The pair dominated the exchanges in the circle and guarded the goal jealously.
Steel goal shoot Daneka Wipiiti got bumped around the court and had an off night, landing 24 of her 35 attempts at goal.
Former Silver Ferns centre Temepara George demonstrated just why she is a big loss to the national side with a player-of-the-match performance.
The Mystics' midcourter made a menace of her ever-present self, stealing a couple of passes she had no right getting her hands on.
Some of her feeding into the circle was also first class.
The Steel pair of Jenny-May Coffin and Liana Barrett-Chase found getting the ball into their shooters a much trickier proposition.
Perhaps they were struggling to tell their team-mates from the opposition.
Both sides were wearing shades of blue, which on television were extremely difficult to tell apart.
Mystics shooter Paula Griffin opened the scoring after a bumbling and ugly start by both sides.
Some poor shooting by Wipiiti handed the home side the early advantage as it crawled out to a 5-1 lead.
It took the Steel almost 5min to post its first goal, but an unanswered six-goal spurt got the scoreboard moving.
The Mystics countered, scoring the last four goals to take a 10-9 lead into the break.
Midway through the quarter, Steel coach Robyn Broughton shifted Erika Burgess back to goal defence and introduced Wendy Telfer at wing defence, banishing Katrina Grant to the bench.
Trailing 19-24 at half-time, the Steel soon found itself staring at a nine goal deficit as the Mystics scored five goals to one.
The visiting side was the architect of its own demise with some basic mistakes - a held ball here and a short pass there.
Some hesitant passing did not help its cause.
Broughton made wholesale changes for the final 15min.
Te Huinga Reo Selby-Rickit replaced Megan Hutton at goal keep and Grant came back on at goal defence, with Burgess shifting back to wing defence.
Telfer went to centre and Megan Dehn replaced goal attack Julianna Naoupu.
The Steel won the last quarter 12-10, but it never got close enough to mount a serious challenge.
Northern Mystics 47 (Paula Griffin 29 from 39, Jade Topia 18/22), Southern Steel 41 (Daneka Wipiiti 24/35, Julianna Naoupu 12/18, Megan Dehn 5/8).
Quarter 10-9, half-time 24-19, three-quarters 37-29.
