Northern Stars have made a belated and winning start to their 2022 ANZ Premiership campaign, overcoming Mainland Tactix 57-52 at Christchurch.
After seeing their scheduled season-opener against Central Pulse postponed by COVID-19 last week, the Auckland side finally took the court against last season's competition runners-up and, bolstered by the arrival of NZ captain Gina Crampton, have quickly showed they would be a force to contend with.
Trailling by seven goals midway through the second quarter, the Stars clawed their way back to parity by halftime and five unanswered goals early in the fourth quarter gave them a comfortable margin to defence down the stretch.
Coach Kiri Wills ran the same line-up through the match, making just one positional change - switching starting goal keep Anna Harrison and goal defence Elle Temu at halftime.
Silver Ferns shooter Maia Wilson was on song early, converting faultlessly through the third quarter and 34/38 for the match, ably assisted by goal attack Jamie Hume (23/30).
After contending for the title last season, Tactix have dropped their opening two games of the new campaign. Shooters Ellie Bird and Te Paea Selby-Rickit were actually more accurate under goal than their counterparts at the other end, but simply did not have as many opportunities.
Northern Stars 57 (Wilson 34/38, Hume 23/30) Mainland Tactix 52 (Bird 34/37, Selby-Rickit 18/22)
PULSE REBOUND
Meanwhile, restored to relative full health, Central Pulse have bounced back from their opening loss, with a 57-41 victory over Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic just 24 hours later.
The outfit from the capital made no race of the encounter, scoring nine straight goals to build a double-figure margin in the opening quarter and stretching it to 17 midway through the second - an advantage they were never likely to relinquish.
Magic battled back to win the third period 12-10, but could not find a way back from such a sizeable deficit.
Pulse shooters Aliyah Dunn and Tiana Metuarau converted at a combined 88 percent, and both were subbed off during the final quarter, with the result well in hand.
After toppling defending champions Northern Mystics in their season-opener, the Magic crashed back to earth, despite fielding an international shooting combination of Amerliaranne Ekenasio - returning from the birth of her second child - and Bailey Mes for the first time.
The newcomers to the franchise actually shot 90 percent for the opening stanza - missing just one attempt - but received less than half the opportunities their counterparts enjoyed at the other end. Ekenasio played just the first 15 minutes against her old franchise.
Central Pulse 57 (Dunn 41/45, Metuarau 14/16, Matoe 2/2) Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic 41 (Mes 19/24, Rowland 15/18, Ekenasio 5/6, Reekers 2/2)
