West Coast Fever held off a fast-finishing Adelaide Thunderbirds to launch themselves into second spot on the back of a six-goal upset over the dual reigning premiers.
Fever midcourter Jordan Cransberg produced a career-best performance as Fever claimed a fourth-consecutive victory, beating the Thunderbirds 67-61 at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Saturday night.
The visitors led by a game-high 13 goals late in the third quarter, but were under threat by a super shot barrage from Georgie Horjus who sunk five from seven attempts for the match to almost steal victory.
Touted as a future Diamond, Cransberg set the standard in the opening quarter of just her 20th game with an incredible two gains, 10 feeds and seven goal assists at centre as Fever took a five-goal lead into the first break.
The 25-year-old ran out the game strongly and produced a vital turnover in the dying moments to ensure her side claimed the valuable victory.
Fever failed to capitalise on their momentum in the second term, hesitating forward of centre and not taking advantage of Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard’s height advantage over Adelaide goalkeeper Matilda Garrett.
Adelaide had no answers for the Jamaican superstar’s dominance in the absence of pregnant defender Shamera Sterling-Humphrey, with Fowler-Nembhard scoring 53 goals from 55 attempts to leave her only 12 short of the 9000 milestone.
Their only chance to match Fever came from the super shot line, with coach Tania Obst going small in the goal circle with Lauren Frew and Horjus the go-to combination.
A series of supershots had Adelaide close the margin to just two goals at the main break, giving Fever coach Dan Ryan some big headaches.
Fever responded in a clinical third quarter, obliterating Adelaide across the court as they put the home side to the sword with an 18 goal to 10 quarter.
Young goal attack Olivia Wilkinson came off the bench to add another dimension to their offence, scoring a five goals as they proved too good for the depleted Thunderbirds defence.
Bravely, Adelaide again came hard in the super shot period to close the gap to three before a time out from Ryan halted their momentum and ensured Fever had the composure to secure the victory.
Fever now face the tough task of back-to-back away games within eight days when they travel to Ken Rosewall Arena and battle Giants.
