By Alexander Dabb
It was a thrilling finale to the regular season for the Melbourne Mavericks and Queensland Firebirds on Saturday night at John Cain Arena, with both sides enjoying a taste of the lead in the final quarter.
But it would be the Mavs that prevailed in an absolute thriller as they continue their charge towards finals, clinching a 60-57 win after coming from behind at the final change, putting themselves in the box seat to host the Minor Semi Final against the Fever.
While the opening few minutes of the contest were fairly tame as both sides settled into the rhythm, the rest of the quarter was anything but, as the Mavericks set a blistering pace.
The pressure on every line was immense, and the turnovers began to pile up, with Jessie Grenvold and Kim Brown locking down the defensive circle, while the midcourt pressure from Amy Parmenter, Jamie-Lee Price and Maddie Hay forced a held ball and multiple stray passes, as the home side continued to press the advantage.
Slowly but surely the gap grew on the scoreboard, the Mavs making the first break to go ahead 7-4, then 9-4, and suddenly 14-7, as the Firebirds struggled to keep up with the finals-bound side.
Price was sending feeds from half court into Nelson, and Brown was blocking shots at the other end, as the Mavs grew seemingly more and more unstoppable as the quarter wore on.
At its peak, the Mavsā first term lead reached nine goals, though a final second super shot from Te Paea Selby-Rickit saw the Firebirds close the deficit to seven at the first break, with the home side ahead 19-12 following a brutal opening term.
It looked like the second term was heading the same way early, as the Mavs found plenty of time and space on the court and moved the ball at will, extending the lead back out to nine goals in the opening minutes.
Reilley Batcheldor was superb for the Mavs on Saturday night.
But the Firebirds were determined to end their season on a high note, quickly steadying before beginning to eat into the deficit.
Just as the Mavs had done in the opening term, the visitors lifted the pressure across the court and began to force errors in what had been to that point a rock-solid Mavericks lineup.
Errant passes and missed shots from the Mavs allowed the Firebirds midcourt, particularly superstar Maddy Gordon, to feed a dominant Mary Colhok quality looks, and she didnāt disappoint, converting nine of nine attempts.
Combined with the shutdown roles Kelly Jackson and Ruby Bakewell-Doran were playing to aplomb in the defensive third, the Firebirds crept back to within four goals at 26-30 behind with a minute remaining, and were right up for the fight.
A pair of late goals to the Mavs, though, saw the lead back out to six, as the home side went into the rooms ahead 32-26 despite giving up ground in the second term.
The biggest discrepancy for the Mavs between the first and second terms lay in their centre pass to goal conversion percentage, with the second term seeing them convert on 64 per cent of centre passes, down significantly from the 87 per cent conversion rate they enjoyed in the opening quarter.
The trend continued in the third term, too, at least early, as immediately the Mavericks coughed up their opening centre pass possession which saw the Firebirds move within three goals, the closest they had been since midway through the first quarter.
While the Mavs soon went back out to a five-goal advantage, the Firebirds again closed to three at 37-34, as they continued to hang around and make life difficult for the home side.
Jamie-Lee Price was again instrumental through the midcourt.
The Mavs needed a spark, and they soon got one, as Nelson poured in her 5000th National League goal to rapturous applause from the John Cain Arena crowd, however they failed to lift sufficiently to the challenge of the Firebirds, who again reduced the deficit further to two, trailing 39-41, forcing Gerard Murphy to take a tactical timeout.
With the centre pass immediately following the break the Firebirds cut the Mavsā lead to one, and forced the turnover off the next possession, too, as the scores were suddenly tied at 41 apiece, before the Firebirds took the lead for the first time all game off the ensuing centre pass, ahead 42-41 as Selby-Rickit sunk her 12th of the contest.
The gap began to grow in favour of the visitors, too, as Imogen Allison began to find space on transition in the midcourt and Cholhok continued her dominance in the circle, soon pushing their lead out the three off the back of a nine to one run.
It would be by that margin that the Firebirds led at the final break, up 46-43 following a 20-11 term, putting all of the pressure back on the Mavs ahead of the fourth term, with a win vital to their chances of hosting the Minor Semi Final against the Fever next week.
The Mavericks forced a turnover early to cut the margin back to a single goal early in the final term, and it was goal for goal from there as an intense battle raged over the final 15 minutes.
Jackson proved pivotal down back for the visitors, helping to reinstate the Firebirdsā three-goal lead with a huge intercept, her third of the contest, as the visitors continued to have all the answers when challenged.
But the home side had been involved in plenty of close finishes this season, and they werenāt done with just yet, again coming up with a pressure-induced turnover in the midcourt to score, cutting into the lead once more and forcing Kiri Wills into a tactical time out.
It was back to one goal the difference immediately following the break as Uneeq Palavi shot truly, while winning the ball back off the next possession, Palavi drawing her side back level as the crowd noise reached fever pitch.
Five straight goals from the Mavs saw them up by one with four minutes to play, before the visitors drew level once again, and it came down to who could hold their nerve in the final three minutes.
Mary Cholhok was huge for the Firebirds with 40 goals from 41 attempts.
A clutch deflection from Grenvold saw the Mavs win possession, and it was the decisive break in the game, as Palavi converted a shot moments later to give the home side the lead, one which they wouldnāt relinquish.
With the final two goals of the contest to Sacha McDonald, the Mavs closed out the win, their ninth of the season and fourth in a row, to head into the finals series having built up a head of steam.
Reilley Batcheldor was named player of the match for her outstanding work at goal attack, earning 64 net points with 11 goal assists, and said post-game that the ability for her side to run down the clock in a tight scenario was assuring heading into the finals series.
āI think for a few of our close games, a few of the girls have actually said that although it is a tough grind, it just never feels like we're going to lose,ā she said.
āWeāve always got that faith in what our game plan is and all the work that we've done, and we back in whatever decisions āGezā makes to put out on court.
āI think it's good, and good practice for us to really run the clock down, whether it's 35 seconds or a minute and a halfā¦
āItās really nice to know that we can keep possession for a minute and a half if we have to, and it'll be important coming into finals, because those scenarios may come.ā
Price was also big for the Mavs, earning 104 et points in another huge outing, while Cholhok was Herculean for the Firebirds, shooting 40 of 41 attempts in a stunning display inside the circle.
It puts the Mavs in the box seat to host the Minor Semi Final, with the Fever needing a win over the Vixens, plus a percentage boost, on Sunday to leap into third.
For the Firebirds, it was a frustrating conclusion to the season, having found form late in the year but ultimately finishing seventh on the ladder with four wins from 14 games.
