Steel's winning streak comes to end

Steel wing attack Gina Crampton takes the ball as their match in Auckland yesterday. Stars defenders Kate Burley and Holly Fowler watch during. Photo: Michael Bradley Photography

This was not the performance the Southern Steel wanted to take into the playoffs.

In reality, it was a meaningless game — the side still finishes second and will host the ANZ Premiership’s preliminary final.

However, a 65-59 loss to the Northern Stars in Auckland means it drops its strong form and four-game winning streak.

The Steel was without goal shoot Jennifer O’Connell, who remained home with illness.

That resulted in Te Paea Selby-Rickit shifting to goal shoot and Olivia Bates making her first start at goal attack.

Both gave solid performances, Selby-Rickit shooting 48/53 to make her most goals in Steel colours, while Bates provided her deft passing touch and shot 11/14 herself.

They were aided by wing attack Gina Crampton, who continued her strong form and fed some great ball into both.

However, it was not enough to topple the Stars.The game began to unravel in the second half. The Steel dropped the third quarter 20-15 and the fourth 17-13.

The Stars attack was clinical and its shooters accurate.

Maia Wilson and Paula Griffin missed just five shots between them and the Steel could not keep up with that consistency.

The Steel fell behind on the second pass of the game and took the entire first quarter to work its way back.

Te Huinga Reo Selby-Rickit gifted the Stars an early break, which they made no mistake exploiting.

They took the lead off the Steel’s opening centre pass and scored off their own to go 2-0 up.

The Steel attack began to find its rhythm, although defensively it had its hands full.It hung around though and, while it turned over ball looking to throw long passes into Te Paea Selby-Rickit, it never fell more than three behind.

The defence eventually began creating turnovers and a strong finish to the quarter allowed Selby-Rickit to tie the score at 15-15. That continued into the second quarter and the Steel quickly jumped out to a 20-17 lead.

The Stars tied things up before falling behind and tying things again.

It was the Steel that finished better again, though, using the clock to perfection in the final minute to score twice in the last 10 seconds and lead 31-28 at halftime.

That quickly closed up, however. Two Steel turnovers looking for Te Paea Selby-Rickit gave the Stars the possession to edge in front 38-36.

The Steel pegged that back, before a good period from the Stars took them to 47-43.

However, the Steel finished well again, Te Paea Selby-Rickit scoring on the buzzer to make it 48-46 heading into the final quarter.

The Steel edged back in front 49-48, but from there the Stars got the upper hand.

They took a four-goal lead at 57-53 and, while the Steel got the margin back to one, the Stars restored the four-goal deficit and then pulled out to six.