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Sunshine Coast have posted their seventh win of the Super Netball season after a 65-61 victory over West Coast in Perth.
Sunshine Coast have set up their top-of-the-table Super Netball clash with the NSW Swifts with an impressive 65-61 victory over West Coast in Perth.
It was just the Fever's third home game at RAC Arena for the season and first since beating the Giants by a goal on May 31.
They have now lost two straight to the top-two teams.
Conversely, the Lightning have put themselves in prime position for a top-two finish.
It was all on the back of three two-point super shots in a matter of minutes that broke the game open in the third quarter, including two from Stephanie Wood.
Wood finished with 16 from 18 attempts including 17 assists with Cara Koenen celebrating her 50th game with 43 from 47.
Jhaniele Fowler hit all 43 of her shots for Fever but she had a fascinating battle with Phumza Maweni who didn't give her anything easy.
The result really closes things up at the top of the Super Netball table with a month of fixtures remaining.
The win is the Lightning's seventh out of 10 games this season as they bounced back from last week's home loss to the Melbourne Vixens.
That has them just percentage behind the top-ranked NSW Swifts who they face next Sunday.
The Fever remain a game clear in fourth place with their seven wins from nine games, but given three of those victories didn't count on the table, the loss could ultimately cost them a top-two finish.
With Koenen dominating in attack for the Lightning and their mid-court getting on top, they held a handy lead for much of the opening half until the Fever got on a roll.
That included a super shot from Alice Teague-Neeld to put the home team up just before half-time but the Lightning responded and scores were tied at 33-33 at the main break.
Things remained tight in the third quarter until the final five minutes when Wood took full advantage of the super shot.
She knocked down two and Koenen another, and suddenly Sunshine Coast was up six at three quarter-time.
Wood stretched the Lightning's lead to seven to start the fourth quarter and after a turnover in the back court, Koenen scored twice and the lead was out to a match-winning nine before Sunshine Coast won by four.
It wasn't the start of a run of three straight home games Fever coach Stacey Marinkovich was hoping for.
"Lightning were pretty ruthless in attack and I think it took us a while to get our hand on ball, and for us in moving the ball across the transverse lines, we were a bit stagnant with our movement," Marinkovich said.
"That made us become one dimensional and when we did have it firing we had great passages of play, and great variety and a lot of options, but it's that inconsistency when you are playing against a team like Lightning that they capitalise on."
