PORT City Power had to scrap and fight on its way to a six-point victory over the Cairns Dolphins on Saturday night, in what could possibly have been a preview of the grand final.

Fans who witnessed the 94-88 win weren’t treated to the usual Power offensive onslaught. It was a real grind with the home team having to dig deep to get the points.

In a sign of the Power struggle to win, there were 10 lead changes in the match, which is very uncustomary.

Cairns delivered the Power’s first defeat for the season the week before and were obviously primed to take it right up to last year’s premiers.

In the first half Hannah Bowley and Bec Haynes took up the bulk of the offensive work in the first half, registering 17 and 16 points respectively.

After half time Bibby sparked into action offensively and if not for her the Power may have had its second loss in a week at the hands of the Dolphins. She led the scoring in the third quarter as it looked like the Dolphins were going to surge ahead and there was little separating the teams at the last break as the Dolphins had whittled down a seven-point Power lead.

A vocal Power crowd got right behind the team and were full of noise as the game became an arm wrestle down the final stretch.

With under three minutes to play, a Haynes three-pointer put the Power two points up, and from there they controlled the play and Diana Neves left her best shot for the night for the full-time buzzer, a three from the top of the court.

Haynes had another monster triple double, 18 points, 10 assists and 18 reboudns, 16 on the defensive end and Bowley led the scorers with 26.

For the Dolphins, Juliana Paunovic and Rohanee Cox scored 26 points apiece and were constant thorns in the Power’s defence, as the Dolphins showed they can more than match it with the Power.

Result

Port City Power 94 Cairns Dolphins 88

Hannah Bowley 26 points, 9 rebounds, Bec Haynes 18 pts (4 three-pointers), 10 assists, 18 rebs, Jess Bibby 22 pts, 8 assists,

Diana Neves 15 points (3 three-pointers)