BOTH South Coast Blaze sides secured crucial Premier League wins against Capital Spirit, during the season's lone Saturday fixture.
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In the open's match, despite missing both Katelyn Begley and Kayla Johnson, the Blaze made a fast start largely due to the Spirit's early turnovers - to lead 9-3.
The Spirit quickly settled brought the score back to 13-9 before Taylah Davies took an impressive intercept in the centre-court and Kristina Brice converted - which was followed by a second long-range bomb.
Te-Arn Bradley was cleaning up every loose ball in defence but a late goal to the Spirit saw the scoreline at 18-15 at the first break.
Danielle Di Bartolo (goal-attack) and Peti Talanoa (goal-keeper) both entered the game after the break, with Tegan Holland taking the goal-defence bib from Bradley.
Talanoa and Holland's rebounds and intercepts, together with Chaise Vassallo's formidable centre-court work saw the score out to 24-19 midway through the quarter, however, the Spirit refused to let the Blaze pull away.
Taylah Davies was contesting everything, with Chelsea Bolton taking the wing-attack position with three minutes remaining.
The Spirit scored a goal right on half-time to make it 34-28 at the main break.
The starting defensive duo of Bradley and Holland returned to the court after the break.
Di Bartolo had her eye in early, with the centre-court combination of Vassallo and Davies bringing the ball down the court with speed.
Abbey McFadden was injected into the game as goal-attack and continued the accurate shooting.
Elecia Parrott was solid in wing-defence, contesting every ball and coming up with crucial intercepts, as the Blaze's lead grew to 48-39.
South Coast came out firing in the fourth quarter, with three consecutive goals seeing the score quickly blow out to 51-39.
Shelby Mallon took over from Brice as goal-shooter and Talanoa returned as GK.
The Spirit mounted a comeback, but the Blaze were ultimately too strong, running away with the match 65-55 - to improve to 4-5-1 in 2021.
In the under 23s fixture, South Coast started off slowly, trailing 5-3 early in the first quarter.
Bronnee Loy was brought into the game in wing-attack, following which the Blaze put their foot down and pulled out to 12-8.
The first quarter saw sharp connections between the attacking players, with a goal on the buzzer by Mia Evans making the score 14-9 heading into the first break.
The second quarter began with Kiah Yealland in at centre and the team on a mission.
Defensive turnovers and lightning speed down the court into the circle saw the score creep out to 20-12.
Selene Chadrawy returned to the centre position.
Aimee Landrigan and Annalise Chadrawy were pulling in intercepts in the defensive end, with shooter-to-shooter passes between Ky-Mani Schwenke and Mia Evans making it difficult for the Spirit to stop the flow of Blaze goals.
Mackenzie Farrow entered the game as goal-shooter and a couple of late goals saw the half-time score at 30-17.
Chloe Burden (goal-keeper) and Kiah Yelland (wing-defence) entered the game and the latter had an immediate effect, intercepting the first centre pass.
Farrow rewarded her with a goal to take the margin to 14.
Dunn entered the game as goal-attack and combined well with Farrow - extending the lead out to 19 goals.
Abbey Baker came on as centre, as Yealland again came through with a flying intercept off a Spirit centre pass.
Dunn converted, making the three-quarter score 46-23.
The same team continued into the fourth quarter.
The defensive combination of Chloe Burden and Jessica Bowden was wreaking havoc on the Spirit shooters.
The Spirit did their best to win back a few goals with some impressive shooting, but Blaze had it all their own way in the last quarter, to win 57-33 and move to 7-3 in 2021.
Next up for the Blaze are clashed with North Shore United on Wednesday, with the under 23s at 7pm and open's at 8.45pm.
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