Western Bureau:

Blazers 'A' earned the right to meet Crystals in tomorrow's St James Hart and Sons Senior Netball League mid-season final when they spanked Angels 'A' 41-33 on Sunday night at the Montego Bay Boys' Club courts. The winners topped Zone B at the end of the competition's first round.

With both teams facing a must-win situation to make the mid-season final, it was Blazers 'A', the less fancied of the two teams, that threw down the gauntlet as they led from start to finish in an impressive display of attacking netball.

Accurate passes

"We knew it was not going to be easy, but we came prepared to challenge every single attack and every shot," said Fiona Gibbs, who played a brilliant game at centre for Blazers 'A'.

"We really wanted this very bad and we pretty much threw everything into the game," she added.

In the first quarter, the agile Gibbs quickly took control of mid court, outpacing her Angels 'A' counterparts as she sprayed accurate passes to goal shooter Christina White and goal attack Shadian Hemmings, who both displayed clinical accuracy in firing Blazers 'A' to a good 13-9 first quarter lead.

In the second quarter, Angels 'A' made a bold effort to get back into the game through goal shooter Nicole Fletcher but Blazers 'A' continued to look the better team, displaying amazing accuracy under the hoop as they established a 25-15 half-time lead.

Angels finally found their range in the third quarter as they outscored Blazers 'A' 15-7 as Fletcher, who finished with 26 goals, went into over-drive. However, Blazers 'A' still had a close 32-30 lead going into the final quarter as Hemmings, who finished with a game-high 30 goals, kept matching Fletcher.

Defending champions

In the final quarter, Angels 'A' began to show signs of tiredness as Blazers 'A' remained fresh and resolute and their earlier dominance returned. In the end Blazers 'A' won the quarter 9-3, which was enough to give them their impressive margin of victory.

In the mid-season final, which will be played at the Montego Bay Boys' Club tomorrow evening at 6 p.m., Blazers 'A' will have to be at their very best if they hope to contain defending champions and runaway Zone A leaders Crystal, who are sporting a 100 per cent win record.

"We just have to go home and get ready for Crystals," said Gibbs. "They are a good team and they are unbeaten, but so were Angels 'A' before we defeated them tonight."