West Coast Fever: Star shooter Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard launches WA club into preliminary final

Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard blew the candles off her birthday cake, then blew the Sunshine Coast Lightning off the court to keep West Coast Fever’s premiership hopes alive.

Fowler-Nembhard executed near-perfect shooting performance, scoring 67 goals at 97 per cent accuracy to lead Fever to a 72-62 win over Lightning in the minor semifinal at RAC Arena on Sunday.

Fever will take on arch-rivals Melbourne Vixens in the preliminary final at John Cain Arena next Saturday, with the winner to meet reigning premiers Adelaide in the decider.

Celebrating her 35th birthday, Fowler-Nembhard overcame several double teams as Fever dominated the second half to end the season of former captain Courtney Bruce and her Lightning teammates.

Fever came out composed and soon held a four-goal but as the quarter went on they began to throw the ball away at inopportune times.

Super goals to Steph Fretwell (19 goals) and Reilley Batcheldor (14 goals, six super goals) led to a six-goal swing and the Lightning had the crowd stunned with a two-goal lead.

Fever needed a spark, so coach Dan Ryan brought Kelsey Browne into centre while Jess Anstiss went up against Liz Watson a pivotal move.

It became a goal-for-goal affair for nearly 10 minutes before Fever surprisingly took control late, with missed opportunities from two-goal range by the Lightning causing turnovers.

The Lightning’s defensive pair of Bruce and Ashleigh Ervin were causing Fever plenty of headaches in attack, slowing down their ball movement and making it hard for them to feed successfully into the circle.

Fowler-Nembhard scored after the siren to give the home side the most-slender of leads going into the main-break and it brought the crowd back into it.

Fever carried this momentum into the start of the second half, scoring eight of the first 11 goals to blow the lead out to six.

But again, the Lightning’s full court defence forced Fever into uncharacteristic turnovers and they slowly conceded their advantage.

The intensity of the contest went up another level and players hitting the deck regularly as the physicality increased.

Batcheldor again was a threat in the super shot period, but several late misses again hurt them and Fever went into the final break with a seven-goal lead.

The game was up for grabs early in the final term and it was Fever who took it with the home side extending their lead to 10 goals.

The super shot prowess of Lightning meant they only had to be within touching distance to threaten a comeback.

It also meant they had to be nearly perfect from long range and they weren’t, while Fever just kept feeding Fowler-Nembhard, who was on fire.

Even a couple of late super goals could not dampen the party mood inside RAC Arena, as Fever kept their season alive.