T&T's Kalifa Mc Collin had another solid outing to help Celtic Dragons to a comfortable 62-51 win over London Pulse for a first home win of the season in the Vitality Netball Superleague at the Sport Wales National Centre, on Monday.
Celtic Dragons started their Round 11 match with confidence with shooters Chelsea Lewis and McCollin being fed well by their mid-court attackers.
Mc Collin struggled to find her range on the shot but Lewis' accuracy helped them into an early 6-2 advantage after five minutes.
Although Dragons were not squeaky clean, they were able to finish the first quarter strongly and held a 13-6 lead after 15 minutes.
Pulse's head coach Te Aroha Keenan decided to change her attacking end for the second quarter and they had more fluidity early on.
That said, Pulse remained adrift as Dragons quietly pulled it out to a ten-goal difference at 19-9 with 10 minutes of the half remaining.
A period of frustration for both teams arrived after, as they each lost their timing and flow through the court, but Pulse came out of it first and drew back a couple of key goals.
However, within the final minutes of the half, Dragons had chances to extend their lead but didn't capitalise, and on the other hand also Pulse had chances to make it closer and didn't, and in the end, the hosts led 26-21 after 30 minutes.
The second half saw the match intensify as both teams grappled to put themselves into the positions that they wanted to be in and with three minutes to gon in the quarter Pulse got back in the match at 37-33, before another slow end to the quarter, only for Dragons to pull away again for a 44-35 cushion at the end of the third quarter.
The final quarter changes made to Pulse's line-up, but instead of settling and spurring a comeback it was the home side who showed greater solidity led by Lewis and vice-captain Mc Collin as they won the quarter 18-16 to seal the 11 points win for a 4-7 record and 12 points, level with sixth placed Surrey Storm.
Commenting after the match, Mc Collin, who return to Dragons after one year with Mavericks said, "I made the move back to Dragons because it feels like home here. People look at Dragons as the underdogs as we haven't won more than two games for the past three years, but this season we came out firing."
