North-West University (NWU) had to weather the storm and remain calm in the dying stages of their fourth game of this year’s Varsity Netball when they took on the University of Johannesburg today to claim a narrow 68-63 win.
NWU coming off a disappointing loss against a strong Maties team yesterday, and had to ensure they bounce back and get the crucial win under their belt. The UJ side made it difficult for the Potchefstroomers, leaving them fighting till the very end.
NWU head coach, Elsunet Du Plessis made changes in their defensive as well as in the mid court, hoping this can eliminate easy goal scoring opportunities for UJ and speed up the distribution of the ball for the NWU side.
The game got off to a very shaky start as both team nerves was visible when getting into the circle. The first quarter ended in 15-15 points apiece. The second quarter saw the NWU get into their stride and play the netball we can expect from them in this year’s tournament.
Their opportunities were taken, and a quicker style of netball was seen and this saw NWU take a seven-point lead going into the half time break.
NWU was looking to extend their lead in the third quarter and took their powerplay early. The Eagles struggled to make use of their powerplay after only scoring two points versus UJ’s six points.
This was the turning point in this quarter as the Johannesburg side cut the lead to just three points, having all the momentum going into the penultimate quarter. The NWU sealed their bonus point after scoring their 50 goals in the game early in the fourth quarter.
It was then turn of the UJ side to take their powerplay, with 10 minutes left on the clock. Again, the NWU team were throwing passes into no mans land and not taking their chances this resulted in them scoring four points, while UJ converted all their three opportunities.
This clash went down to the wire, after the NWU side came from two points down in the last three minutes to win the game by 5 points.
The North-West University will be looking for a more clinical performance when they next face TUT tomorrow (Wednesday, 25 August) at 15:00.
