Selby-Rickit leads attack on former team
Now she has punished them as a playmaker for the Mainland Tactix and led her new team to a 57-49 victory in Invercargill on Saturday.
The goal attack was utterly dominant across the court for the Tactix, who retained the Hutton Family Trophy and stayed at the top of the ANZ Premiership ladder.
Selby-Rickit might have slotted only nine goals, but she dominated the attack end with 36 feeds, 27 goal assists and 17 centre pass receives.
It was a frustrating result for the Steel, who let the Tactix get a roll on and were fighting back for much of the game.
Steel co-captain Kate Heffernan made a welcome return from injury, albeit on managed minutes.
Steel coach Wendy Frew said the result was a "tough one to swallow".
"It's a tough one," Frew told TVNZ.
"The girls really brought the energy and the hype, and we just couldn't get over the line.
"It felt like it was a game we were coming back into. I never thought it was out of our reach.
"When we get down by that, we're chasing twos and we missed a couple of rebounds on that two.
"In terms of our defence game, we just need to be more united and get ball for each other. We're not working as units as well as we need to."
Paris Lokotui — in her 50th game — came up with an intercept in the pocket and the Tactix moved swiftly to find Ellie Bird on the base.
When the Steel let the ball do the work and moved it around the circle edge, it opened up their attacking end to find Georgia Heffernan on the base.
Centre Kimiora Poi split the circle with a nice feed to Aliyah Dunn.
Carys Stythe picked up an outside arm tip, but the Steel squandered the gain at the other end. But the Steel came home strongly at the tail end of the quarter to trail 16-14 at the first break.
Selby-Rickit burnt the Steel on the centre pass, popping out the middle channel to allow depth on the Tactix second phase.
That helped Bird, who held high in the circle to give herself space along the base.
Lokotui again snaffled a cross-court ball and Selby-Rickit's shooter-to-shooter offloads were perfect.
The Steel players put one another under pressure on the pass and the take, and Tactix defenders Jane Watson and Karin Burger confused the space.
That helped give the visitors a 26-19 lead, their biggest of the game.
Abby Lawson came on at goal defence in a bid to shut down Selby-Rickit and Kate Heffernan at wing defence.
There was a lift in the defence pressure thanks to the changes. They put on a strong zone to shut down the middle for the Tactix attackers.
But the Tactix's ball placement split the zone open to find a way to their shooters.
They withstood the pressure and forged ahead for a 32-26 lead at halftime.
Kate Heffernan moved into centre, shifting Poi back to wing attack for the Steel to start the third quarter.
The Tactix picked up where they left off, finding Bird far too easily under the post.
Once Stythe moved her feet around Bird, she grabbed a deflection — but again the Steel could not make it count.
The Tactix went on a six-one run and suddenly led by 10.
The Steel got stuck running, and not making any direct movements on attack, and defensively, they struggled to come off the body and pick up any ball.
After a slow start to the quarter, the Steel came right in the final minutes.
It took until the end of the third quarter before Dunn slotted the first accurate two-pointer of the game.
The Steel picked up a good rebound at the other end, and Dunn followed up with another two to to trail 45-37 at the break.
The Steel came back to level the final quarter 12-12 but were unable to get within five for a bonus point. ANZ Premiership
The scores
Mainland Tactix 57
Ellie Bird 37 (37/42), Te Paea Selby-Rickit 9 (9/11), Martina Salmon 11 (11/14)
Southern Steel 49
Aliyah Dunn 42 (39/45), Georgia Heffernan 7 (7/14)
Quarter scores: Tactix 16-14, 32-26, 47-37.
kayla.hodge@odt.co.nz
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