Game to forget for Southern Steel

If the Southern Steel’s season opener against the Tactix was a game to remember, tonight’s clash against the Mystics was one to forget, and quickly.

The Steel will back up on Sunday at home against the Stars hoping for more of the secret sauce that saw them thump the Tactix 71-54 in Christchurch and less of the error-riddled performance they managed in a 70-50 loss front of a Covid-restricted crowd of 200 at ILT Stadium Southland.

Steel coach Reinga Bloxham is ready to move on, but not before taking a few lessons from the 20-goal defeat.

“I think we really have to have a good look at it, to be honest, and have a think about whether we did our own personal jobs tonight,” she said.

“At times I think the Mystics were really classy and really quick and we struggled to put enough pressure on them to slow them down.”

Starting the game with something to prove after losing to the Magic in their season opener, the defending champion Mystics would have been stoked to take a 19-9 lead into the first break and a 32-22 lead into halftime.

The Steel, who had started the game with Ali Wilshier at centre, Saviour Tui and Georgia Heffernan in the shooting circle and George Fisher on the bench, were unable to convert two hard won breaks at the start of the game and then dished up regular turnovers to the grateful visitors.

Fisher, who injured her right knee in training during the week, had been in doubt for most of the week and Bloxham was pleased just to get three quarters from the English international.

Just how much the injury will hinder Fisher and the Steel will depend on how she recovers from tonight’s game, with Renee Savai’inaea another struggling with injury at the moment.

On the other side of the ball, the Steel struggled to stem the flow of ball into Grace Nweke, who looked relatively untroubled under the hoop in the first half.

The arrival of Fisher in the second quarter, and Wilshier and Shannon Saunders swapping midcourt roles did improve the connections into the shooting circle, but the Steel were unable to eat into the Mystics’ sizeable lead.

Goal keep Kate Burley led the Steel’s mini-revival after halftime, forcing two early turnovers despite giving up 12cm to Nweke, who would go onto shoot 50 from 52.

And while the Steel were able to get within six goals early in the third quarter, they made too many mistakes in each third of the court to really put the Mystics’ lead under pressure.

On a night without too many positives for Bloxham, she was able to give her wider squad game time, with Kate Heffernan and Kate Hartley both getting minutes in the midcourt.