STEEL HAMMER HOME WIN

A crushing first-half performance sealed the Southern Steel’s second victory of the 2010 ANZ Championship season tonight, beating Central Pulse, 56-44.

Every opponent knows how hard it is to whip a win off the Steel at home, and the Pulse appeared to feel the pressure at the Edgar Centre in Dunedin from the first whistle. In a painful first half for the Pulse, they faltered under pressure, outscored two-to-one by a rampaging Steel, but got some redemption with a more proficient effort in the second half.

Steel captain Megan Dehn was disappointed with her side’s failure to respond to Pulse’s step up. “We did everything we wanted to in the first half, it was very clinical and it worked really well.  But we didn’t adjust to their different style of play in the second half,” she said.
Steel’s defence had their eye in immediately, with most of the midcourt and defence claiming an intercept in the first seven minutes, quickly boosting the home side to an eight-goal advantage.

They were equally in tune on attack, with goal shoot Daneka Wipiiti showing no signs of the injury that kept her sidelined a week ago, and goal attack Dehn working tirelessly in and outside the circle.

Pulse’s weak point this season has been making the connection to their shooters, and the headaches continued as the Central team could not find their target with their passes. Pulse coach Yvette McCausland-Durie had decided to shuffle her shooting duo for the start of this match, putting Paula Griffin under the post and moving captain Jane Altschwager out to goal attack.  But with Steel goal keep Leana de Bruin continuing her strong showing, and Te Huinga Selby-Rickitt in support at goal defence, Griffin rarely saw the ball.

Trailing 16-8 at the first quarter break, McCausland-Durie urged her team to drive on to the ball, and keep their passes short and sharp.  She switched her shooters, and introduced the effervescent Bessie Manu to the game at wing defence.

But there was little, it seemed, that Pulse could do right to halt a storming Steel assault. Steel wing attack Liana Barrett-Chase showed exemplary vision to set up Dehn and Wipiiti, while Wendy Frew and Erica Burgess controlled the middle of the court, making certain to claim any ball that went begging.

Griffin was still potent when she had the ball in her hands, shooting 11 from 13, but Pulse’s 20 attempts at goal in the first half palled in comparison to Steel’s 42.

At halftime, Steel coach Robyn Broughton asked her team to remain “cold and calculating” and have no blood rushes to the head.  At 34-17 up, she took the opportunity to change her side’s shooting style, bringing Julianna Naoupu – the star of the Steel’s last match - on for Wipiiti, who left with an impressive 23 from 28.  But Steel were slow to adjust to the alteration, and Pulse took the chance to pounce.

Pulse showed better unity and more urgency from the start of the third quarter, scoring five in a row, and claiming the quarter as theirs, 12-10. Captain Altschwager finally stepped up to the mark, backing up Griffin with 20 from 24 (83%) for the match.

Both teams were guilty of basic errors in the last spell, but Pulse came out 27-22 on top for the half, giving them something positive to work on for their next game against the Swifts.