The renowned late coach would be pretty proud knowing that was at the core of one of her former team’s efforts to win the inaugural Robyn Broughton Legacy Trophy game.
Unfortunately for the Southern Steel, they were on the other end of that effort, eventually falling 65-38 to the Central Pulse in Invercargill tonight.
The win means the Pulse leap to top spot on the ANZ Premiership table and gave Fa’amu Ioane something to smile about in her 100th game.
Pulse goal keep Kelly Jackson was unstoppable and surely booked her starting spot for the Silver Ferns.
She finished the game with 15 gains, but it was her ability to stay clean, only drawing seven penalties against her, and setting everyone up around her, that really stood out.
It was still a relatively scrappy game with a bulk of turnover ball, and the Steel just had no answers for the Pulse once they got going.
You cannot say the Steel did not have enough ball to lead at the end of the opening quarter.
Taneisha Fifita, arguably her best outing since returning to the Steel this season, picked up two intercepts and a deflection, and Renee Savai’inaea took two screamers in the pocket.
But the Steel’s shooting, ball placement and silly errors let them down.
To their credit, they treasured the ball late to trail just 11-10 at the first break.
The Pulse were guilty of their own errors early too.
They put up a couple of horror shots and could not quite get their ball speed going that they are known for in the low-scoring first quarter.
But they settled in the second, went out by four goals early and put their foot down from there.
Jackson, who finished the first half with 10 gains and just the one penalty, suffocated space for the Steel shooters – forcing Summer Temu to be introduced – and was amongst everything.
That made it hard for the Steel – but they also made it hard on themselves.
They scored just one goal in the opening nine minutes of the second quarter until Georgia Heffernan started to take charge.
She came in to the game more in the final minutes and the Steel trailed 25-17.
Whitney Souness led the Pulse in attack with her explosive speed and helped them get depth on second phase with Tiana Metuarau in the pocket.
At the other end, Steel captain Kate Heffernan again carried a heavy work load and thread the needle through to Temu.
But the Steel just could not withstand the Pulse's onslaught.
Claire Kersten, who joined the Pulse in 2013 under Broughton and has come out of retirement as an injury replacement, was also impressive in the middle.
She used her class and experience to guide some nice long feeds and was a strong link through the court.
They dominated the third quarter 19-10 and led 44-27 at the third quarter break.
When the Steel did the work off the ball to create space for themselves, it opened up on attack.
But those moments were far and few between for the Steel to make a dent in the Pulse’s lead.
They were better in the final quarter scoring 11 goals, their most of any quarter, but still not enough.
The Pulse just carried on in the final quarter to notch up their biggest score of the season.
Earlier in the round, the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic beat the Northern Stars 51-47 and the Northern Mystics thumped the Mainland Tactix 61-49.
ANZ Premiership
The scores
Central Pulse 65
Martina Salmon 53/62, Kiana Pelasio 3/5, Tiana Metuarau 9/12
Southern Steel 38
Grace Namana 11/16, Georgia Heffernan 20/24, Summer Temu 7/7
Quarter scores: Central Pulse 11-10, 25-17, 44-27
