ADELAIDE, Australia – Outstanding Sunshine Girls defender, Shamera Sterling, survived an injury scare to produce a high-quality Player-of-the-Match performance as Adelaide Thunderbirds extended their lead at the top of the Australian Super Netball Championship with a 63-46 win over Queensland Firebirds.
Thunderbirds’ Jamaica international Shamera Sterling.The 27-year-old six-footer came away with 10 gains, nine deflections, six intercepts and three rebounds, thwarting the Firebirds at every turn to ensure Thunderbirds posted their seventh win in nine games to move to 30 points – four points clear of second placed New South Wales Swifts.
Sterling sustained an ankle niggle in the second quarter but was able to shake it off and continue.
Fellow Jamaican defender Latanya Wilson was not so fortunate, forced off in the final quarter with a suspected knee injury.
The victory at Netball SA Stadium on Saturday was masterminded in the fourth quarter, Thunderbirds out-scoring the visitors 24-9 after they held only a slim 39-37 lead at the end of the third quarter.
England international Eleanor Cardwell led the winners with 27 goals from 32 attempts while for the losers, Donnell Wallam finished with 24 from 29.
“I’m very, very proud because at the start we let the Firebirds be in it too much with us,” Sterling said afterwards.
“In the second half we tried to pull it away and in the last quarter we pulled away.”
Also on Saturday, Jamaica international Romelda Aiken-George drained two goals in the dying stages of the game as Swifts inflicted a shock third defeat of the campaign on previous leaders West Coast Fever, with a 65-64 result at RAC Arena in Perth.
Aiken-George tied the game at 64 and her next shot in the closing seconds was enough to help Swifts edge over the line for their fifth win of the season.
The 34-year-old Aiden-George poured in 28 from 34 while her international teammate, superstar shooter Jhaniele Fowler scored 53 from 55 for Fever who slipped to third on 24 points.
Swifts led 32-30 at the half, trailed 48-49 at the end of the third quarter before pulling out the stops in the all-important final quarter.
On Sunday at the John Cain Arena in Melbourne, another Sunshine Girl Shimona Nelson proved outstanding with a perfect 46 goals from as many attempts but her Collingwood Magpies slumped to a disappointing 69-56 defeat to Giants Netball.
Magpies trailed 27-30 at the half-time break and were then outclassed in the second half, 21-year-old shooter Matisse Letherbarrow knocking down 37 from 41 to lead the winners.
In a close contest at the UniSC Arena on the Sunshine Coast also on Sunday, Jamaican defender Kadie-Ann Dehaney’s Sunshine Coast Lightning slipped to a 62-61 loss to Melbourne Vixens, Malawi international Mwai Kumwenda top-scoring with 45 from 48 for the winners.
