Borrego's Birds fall in ANZ champs

ADELAIDE, Australia (CMC):

Carla Borrego checked out of this year's ANZ Championship with another weak performance for the Adelaide Thunderbirds, which lost their last regular season game when West Coast Fever stopped them 64-59 on Monday.

The Jamaican goal shooter scored 32 goals from 38 attempts as the T-birds made a last-gasp dash, closing a 12-goal deficit to two, but could not maintain the intensity to the final whistle.

This brought to an end what has been a frustrating season for the T-birds, last year's champions. They finished the regular season in sixth place with 10 points. Neither side will advance to the post season.

There was little between the two sides for most of the opening quarter, with the Thunderbirds having a slight edge, thanks to goal attack Erin Bell shouldering the early weight of the shooting responsibilities.

But the T-birds allowed the Fever a string of five goals, the majority of them from the sure hands of Caitlin Bassett, to grab a 16-12 lead after the first quarter.

The T-birds started the second period in a blaze and they tied the scores up halfway through the quarter.

With Borrego surrounded by the long, intrusive arms of both Susan Fuhrmann and Ama Agbeze, Bell continued to add to the Thunderbirds' tally, but things unravelled in the closing stages and the Fever led 31-24 at half-time.

The T-birds continued to encounter problems, trailing by 12 goals in the first five minutes of the third stanza, when the hosts struggled to get the ball through to Borrego.