Northern Hawks have seen off the challenge from reigning premiers and Northern rivals Cavaliers, keeping their unbeaten streak intact with a 76-54 victory.
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Battling it out in the top-of-the-table contest, the result handed the Cavaliers their second loss of the season at the hands of the Hawks, who have firmed themselves as the competition benchmark.
The Cavaliers, buoyed by the return of star centre and captain Shelby Miller, established an early three-point lead but the Hawks pegged it back to be leading 16-12 at the first break.
The Hawks continued their momentum into the second quarter, hitting the scoreboard regularly to continue building the lead.
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With the Hawks in front 39-26 at half time, play started off even in the third before the Cavs faithful had their hearts in their mouths as Miller hobbled off injured.
Her side would attempt to make up the deficit as she failed to return to the court but it proved to be too much as the Hawks ran out to a 55-38 lead and added to it for the final result.
Danni Pickett was named the Hawks' player of the match for the second consecutive time with coaches Ruth Tuohy and Kellie Woolnough typically pleased with their side's performance.
"We were very, very happy with our defensive pressure and happy that we stuck to our team structures and played our game," Woolnough said.
"It created errors and then were were able to capitalise on them."
The pair praised the work of Pickett and Lydia Coote, who defended strongly against the opposing wing attack, as their side heads into a well-deserved bye.
"I think the girls deserve a rest, they've worked particularly hard," Tuohy said.
"We'll still continue to work hard but they are ready to take a little bit of a rest and we will review what the last couple of games look like and work into those as the season is unfortunately wrapping up pretty quickly now."
Opposing coach Dan Roden was full of praise for the Hawks but was also pleased with his team's efforts.
"They're a well-oiled machine, they were very slick tonight and as a result, we were on the back foot and they were on the front foot," he said.
"I actually thought we played a really good brand of netball but I think they played a brand of netball for four quarters and we played really good netball for patches, but not four quarters."