On-song Jhaniele passes 8000-mark as Fever beat Mavs

West Coast Fever’s Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard (second right) scored her 8000th Super Netball goal.

Legendary Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard has hit 50 without a miss, including her 8000th career Super Netball goal, to steer the ladder-leading West Coast Fever to a 69-62 win over the Melbourne Mavericks at John Cain Arena.

The Fever trailed 17-14 at quarter-time on Saturday night and were challenged late, but in between were too strong for the first-year expansion Mavericks, who at one stage looked like pulling off the season’s biggest boilover.

After missing two first-quarter shots, the Fever didn’t miss another one for the duration of the contest, burying their last 54 unblemished.

“We knew the Mavericks were going to come hard at us,” Fowler-Nembhard said.

“It was good for us to hold our composure and limit the amount of balls we were turning over.”

West Coast were run ragged early, the connections between the Mavericks’ front-court trio of Shimona Jok, Eleanor Cardwell and Maisie Nankivell a feature.

Stung into action, the Fever went on a rampage, bagging 19 of the next 24 goals to turn a three-point quarter-time deficit into a 40-32 advantage at the main break.

The Mavs became plagued by penalties and turnovers early in the second stanza and had no answers for West Coast’s rampant Jamaican spearheads Fowler-Nembhard and Shanice Beckford.

The Fever nailed all 23 shot attempts and coughed up only one turnover in a near-flawless second term.

The Mavs pulled out every trick conceivable to stem the tide, including the shock decision to switch star shooter Jok into goal defence in a bid to curb countrywoman Fowler-Nembhard.

The Fever stretched their cushion to 12 early in the fourth quarter, during which Fowler-Nembhard, with her 42nd successful shot, reached the 8000-goal milestone.

Mavericks’ long-range specialist Gabrielle Sinclair nailed three straight super shots in the fourth, giving her six two-pointers for the match, to trim the deficit to five, before West Coast steadied down the stretch.