Second half Lightning strike downs Swifts at TGC
The Swifts finished the group stages of the Team Girls Cup with a win, a draw and a loss after falling 46-41 to the Sunshine Coast Lightning this evening.
After beating the Fever yesterday and drawing with Collingwood this morning, the Swifts couldn’t back up a fine first half effort with the Lightning finishing the game stronger.
The result means both sides will finish the group on level points, but the Lightning have pipped the Swifts to a third-place playoff game on marginal goal percentage.
Instead of playing the Melbourne Vixens for third spot, the Swifts will instead battle the Giants for fifth.
The Suncorp Super Netball pre-season tournament is taking place on the Gold Coast with all eight teams taking part.
The opening quarter was perhaps the most fluid passages of the entire competition so far with only one possession gain for the Swifts enough to separate the sides entering the opening Power Five.
The Swifts gave up one turnover, when Sophie Fawns put a foot off court off a centre pass from Maddy Proud, so it meant the sides went to the first break tied at 12 goals apiece.
Back-to-back defensive gains from Sarah Klau and Maddy Turner gave Proud and Paige Hadley the opportunity to get Romelda Aiken-George in range to put NSW four goals up and it forced the Lightning into their first timeout of the game.
The Lightning regrouped well but couldn’t make inroads on the margin between them and their opponents and the Swifts went to the halftime break with a five-goal lead (24-19).
Sunshine Coast introduced former Swift and Diamonds shooter Steph Wood for the second half and it had the desired effect. The Queenslanders were much more direct in attack while the Swifts lost shape.
For context, the Swifts had made a raft of changes with Lili Gorman-Brown, Ali Miller, Dakota Thomas and Kelea Iongi all entering the game during the third term and – understandably – taking time to get up to the pace of the game, which was relentless.
At the last break the Lightning had gone ahead by one and it was 34-33.
The final quarter was a very messy one by both sides, but the Diamonds pairing of Wood and Cara Koenen was providing the Lightning great options up front while Kadie-Ann Dehaney was a thorn in the Swifts’ defensive end.
That said, there were plenty of turnovers created by the Swifts but they couldn’t take advantage. The result was in question right until the final minute, but when at Sophie Fawns Super Shot attempt rattled the rim, the ball feel into Sunshine Coast hands, and they ran the clock down from there.
NSW SWIFTS (Players Used)
Starting 7 | GS Romelda Aiken-George, GA Sophie Fawns, WA Paige Hadley, C Maddy Proud, WD Allie Smith, GD Maddy Turner, GK Sarah Klau
Second half 7 | GS Romelda Aiken-George, GA Sophie Fawns/Ali Miller, WA Paige Hadley, C Maddy Proud/Lili Gorman-Brown, WD Dakota Thomas, GD Maddy Turner/Kelea Iongi, GK Sarah Klau
Q1 | Swifts 12 Lightning 12
Q2 | Swifts 24 Lightning 19 (12-7)
Q3 | Swifts 33 Lightning 34 (9-15)
Q4 | Swifts 41 Lightning 46 (8-12)
