Last updated 21:10, June 20 2018
ANTHONY AU-YEUNG/ PHOTOSPORT
Maria Folau made another of her fleeing appearances for the Mystics on Wednesday night.
Maria Folau made another of her fleeing appearances for the Mystics on Wednesday night.
The Northern Mystics continued their journey of building over the season by defeating the Southern Steel 62-57 on Wednesday night.
It was the third time these two teams had met this season, with last year's champions victorious in the first two games.
However, this time it was the Mystics who were dominant, putting in an outstanding third quarter where they outscored their opponents 13-1 at one point to seal the win.
Gina Crampton showed her athleticism at North Shore Events Centre.
Having defeated the table topping Pulse and the second placed Steel in their past two games, the Mystics are showing they're a side that can play consistent netball for 60 minutes and should be considered as title contenders.
The Steel were on a three-game winning streak going into this contest, but never managed to have a lead of more than two goals in this game.
Veteran Maria Folau made her fourth appearance this season for the Mystics and this time started, relegating Jamie Hume to the bench for the whole game.
Up front with Bailey Mes, she was outstanding, causing the Steel's defence plenty of problems.
The Steel got off to a slow start and were down 3-0 after the first three minutes and even when they were able to get on the board, their shooters had trouble overcoming the Mystics defence of Michaela Sokolich-Beatson and Phoenix Karaka.
But midcourt mistakes by the Mystics gave the Steel more attacking opportunities and they were able to level the game at 6-6.
At the end of the first quarter the Steel were up 14-13. Even though Folau scored eight goals from eight attempts, Jen O'Connell was nine from 10 as the youngster and veteran battled it out from either ends of the court.
The start of the second quarter was all Mystics, or all Bailey Mes to be more precise, as the Silver Fern went six from six as her team built a four-point lead.
However, again the Steel bounced back, although a buzzer beater from Mes put the Mystics up 29-28 at halftime.
The third quarter was another where the Mystics got off to a flyer, bringing about speculation on just how good Helene Wilson's team talks are.
With seven minutes in the quarter gone the Mystics were up by 11 and this was the lead that proved decisive.
Gina Crampton stood out for the Steel over the fourth quarter and with 12 minutes to go the lead was down to just four points. Later Phoenix Karaka was given a warning for persistent obstruction.
But although the Steel did briefly get too close for the Mystics' comfort, they weren't able to reduce the deficit further and in the end they were too far out and only just managed to pick up a bonus point.
Northern Mystics 62 (Bailey Mes 33/37, Maria Folau 29/35) Southern Steel 57 (Jen O'Connell 41/46, Te Paea Selby-Rickit 16/25).
Q1: 13-14; HT: 29-28; Q3: 48-41
Points (games played): Pulse 15 (8), Steel 13 (9), Mystics 10 (8), Tactix 10 (9), Magic 9 (8), Stars 7 (8)