Dominant second half from Silver Ferns puts them in commanding position to retain the Constellation Cup over trans-Tasman rivals.
The Ferns are right where they want to be, 2-0 up in the series, after winning both games at home. Toeava has been outstanding in the first two tests, but wonโt travel to Australia for the final two games. An absorbing contest between the trans-Tasman rivals with little separating the teams in the first half. A beautiful mind crunching all the player stats. You need journalists close enough to smell the liniment. Nweke was perfect with her shooting, converting all 37 attempts, but wing attack Toeava was the difference-maker in the second half. They came out firing in the third quarter, going on a 7-2 run to start the term, surging ahead on the scoreboard. After a quiet showing in the first test, experienced Australian goal attack Steph Wood stepped up her play. The Ferns delivered some fine netball after halftime showing wonderful links on attack. The rattled Australians never recovered. They restricted Australia to nine goals, scoring 15 themselves, to lead 39-34 going into the last term. โHer ball rate and possession was really high, plus also her shooting.
The Silver Ferns establish a 2-0 Constellation Cup lead with a 52-48 win over the Diamonds in Tauranga ahead of the series moving to Australia.
We knew what we had to do โฆ "We really trusted what we had in the bank tonight. The Diamonds held one-point leads at quarter-time and half-time, before the Silver Ferns took control of the match in the third term.
Grace Nweke's flawless performance, along with a crucial 7-2 run in the third quarter, saw the Silver Ferns go up 2-0 in the four-Test Constellation Cup ...
In the end, the run proved to be the difference as the Australians failed to find a break of their own in the fourth quarter, giving the Kiwis two wins from two home games as they now prepare to cross the Tasman for the other two Tests. Nweke and Ekenasio were perfection in the first half shooting 24-from-24 to keep the Kiwis in it; a 12-12 second quarter meaning the Australians headed to the break up 25-24. Nweke finished 37-from-37 in Tauranga to lead the Silver Ferns to a 52-48 win, meaning the Diamonds will now need to win both matches in Australia with a greater goal percentage in order to reclaim the Constellation Cup that the Kiwis took off them last year.
The NZ women backed up their win at Auckland with another excellent outing at Tauranga.
Answering the challenge, the Silver Ferns took a decisive step in the Constellation Cup with a 52-48 come-from-behind win over the Australian Diamonds in ...
The injection of Heffernan at centre coincided with improved flow on attack, the dynamic Toeava finding her range into shooter Grace Nweke as the Silver Ferns found their rhythm. Failing to make the most of their turnover opportunities, the Silver Ferns were forced to dig deep. Kelly Jury took over from Fitzpatrick on the resumption as the Silver Ferns struggled to find their groove.