Diamonds Make a Winning Start
In their first match on home soil since winning the Commonwealth Games Gold Medal in August, the Diamonds have taken a 2-0 lead over the Silver Ferns in the Constellation Cup series courtesy of their nine-goal victory.
The nine-goal win was also Australia’s 15th consecutive victory overall since September last year.
The Diamonds got away to a six-goal lead early in the term before the Silver Ferns pegged the deficit back to three at the main break thanks to some great defensive pressure in the midcourt and accurate shooting by Catherine Latu, who shot at 100 per cent for the half, and Wells.
Diamonds’ coach Lisa Alexander made changes to her line-up to start the second half with Kimberlee Green taking over the centre bib from Kim Ravaillion and Tegan Caldwell replacing Natalie Medhurst at goal attack for her Test debut on home soil.
But the Silver Ferns refused to wilt and enjoyed a strong period of play late in the term to close the margin to five goals before a late Bassett goal gave the Diamonds a 35-29 heading into the last quarter.
After Bassett scored the opening goal of the final term, the Silver Ferns kept surging through Latu and Wells as they made the Diamonds pay for some crucial errors to close to gap to just two goals in the early stages of the quarter.
But the Diamonds again steadied and were able to pull away to an advantage the gallant Silver Ferns just couldn’t produce one more fightback from.