South African Elmere van der Berg has upstaged her Diamonds rival Courtney Bruce in an early Commonwealth Games preview to steer the Adelaide Thunderbirds to a 61-60 victory over the Sunshine Coast Lightning.
After relinquishing top spot on the Super Netball ladder in a 56-50 loss to the Melbourne Vixens last round, the Thunderbirds looked to bounce back at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Saturday.
And they turned to their star shooter van der Berg (57 goals from 61 shots) to help deliver them another win in front of their home fans.
Victory will be extra sweet for the 24-year-old and gave her some valuable practice against Bruce, who will most likely line up for the Diamonds when they play South Africa in Pool A of the Commonwealth Games beginning in July.
Despite grabbing four gains and three interceptions, the star defender coughed up a costly 15 penalties.
New Zealander Kate Heffernan (23 feeds, 15 goal assists, four gains) was also instrumental for the Thunderbirds, but Adelaide will sweat on the fitness of star defender Shamera Sterling-Humphrey, who was in tears when she left the court early.
The teams went tit-for-tat for much of the match, but a series of fourth-quarter deflections and interceptions helped the Thunderbirds improve their record to 6-1.
"It was a great game. Both teams had momentum at different times, and it was really cool to close it out after last week, where we had a tough loss," Heffernan told Fox Sports.
"I'm really proud of the girls. We worked really hard this week and worked really hard in those moments."
The Lightning were looking to cement their spot inside the top four, with the Melbourne Mavericks, Queensland Firebirds and NSW Swifts sitting one win behind them.
Despite Donnell Wallam's 47 goals from 53 attempts and Leesa Mi Mi's excellent performance (31 feeds, 20 goal assists), Sunshine Coast (3-4) suffered their third defeat in four games.
The teams traded goals in a frantic start, but Wallam sank shot after shot to create a five-goal halftime lead for the visitors.
Adelaide clawed the deficit back as their attack got on top of the Lightning's well-oiled defence, and van der Berg continued to shoot the lights out to help the home team lead 31-29 at the main break.
Sterling-Humphrey left midway through the third quarter, but the Thunderbirds held strong despite Wallam's flurry of late Super Shots to secure the four points.
