Jhaniele Fowler came up just short in her quest to win the title in her debut season in the Suncorp Super Netball League after her team West Coast Fever gave up a 7 goal lead en route to suffering a hard-fought 62-59 loss to Sunshine Coast Lightning in the Grand Final.
Fowler during the contest shot a game high 53 goals from 55 attempts despite struggling to move freely on the knee she injured against Giants two weeks previously.
Caitlin bassett went 45 of 50 for the lightning who were repeating as champions.
The Fever having taken an early 10-8 lead saw the Lightning battling back but claimed the last two goals of the quarter to lock the scores up at 14-14 at quarter time.
West Coast threatened to march away with the game as they coasted to a seven-goal lead, but Lightning scored late, secured an intercept and stole another late goal off the back of a penalty to only trail 29-26 at halftime.
The stats
Q1: Fever 14 v Lightning 14
Q2: Fever 15 v Lightning 12
Q3: Fever 16 v Lightning 22
Q4: Fever 14 v Lightning 14
Fever shooting statistics
Jhaniele Fowler 53/55
Nat Medhurst 6/10
Lightning shooting statistics
Caitlin Bassett 45/50
Steph Wood 17/20
Fever starting seven
GS: Jhaniele Fowler, GA: Nat Medhurst, WA: Ingrid Colyer, C: Verity Charles, WD: Jess Anstiss, GD: Stacey Francis, GK: Courtney Bruce
Lightning starting seven
GS: Caitlin Bassett, GA: Steph Wood, WA: Kelsey Browne, C: Laura Scherian, WD: Madeline McAuliffe, GD: Karla Pretorius, GK: Geva Mentor
Nissan MVP: Caitlin Bassett
Fowler, who won the scoring title after ending the regular season with 783 goals, finished with an overall 884.
Compatriot Romelda Aiken of the Queensland Firebirds was second in scoring with 575 and was also the league’s top rebounder with 61 -26 ahead of Fowler who ended second on 35.
Shimona Nelson of the Adelaide Thunderbirds was 4th with 27 and 6th in scoring with 418 goals.