A majestic third-quarter masterclass has catapulted Collingwood out of an early hole and to a 69-61 victory over the Queensland Firebirds at John Cain Arena.
The Magpies trailed by five at quarter-time and half-time before completing an emphatic Easter Sunday resurrection by outscoring the Firebirds 23-8 in the third term.
Jodi-Ann Ward (five intercepts) was brilliant in defence, fellow Jamaican Shimona Nelson (61 goals) proved unstoppable after an uncharacteristically shaky start and centre Molly Jovic was enormously influential in the fightback.
"We're pretty happy with the performance," Ward said.
"We started really slowly - that wasn't the type of netball we wanted to play.
"We were in the change rooms where we reflected on the first half and we just came out firing in the second half."
The result took Collingwood to 2-2 and helped erase memories of last week's 27-goal belting by West Coast Fever.
Making matters worse for the winless Firebirds, goal attack Mia Stower exited the match midway through the fourth quarter after injuring her left leg in a collision with Ward.
Queensland started strongly, though, with captain Kim Ravaillion and Lara Dunkley creative, Ruby Bakewell-Doran leading a sturdy defence and shooter Donnell Wallam shading Geva Mentor.
Stower's super shot on the quarter-time buzzer put the Firebirds in front 18-13.
Nelson, who went into the match with a near-perfect 120-of-121 conversion rate across the opening three rounds, uncharacteristically missed four of her first 15 close-range shots before successfully recovering her radar.
Defenders Ward and Mentor kept the Magpies in the hunt, but the Firebirds' defensive duo of Bakewell-Doran and Remi Kamo were just as hot at the other end as the visitors closed the half with four unanswered goals to Wallam to lead 33-28 at the main interval.
For the next 15 minutes, the Magpies could do no wrong.
Jovic got right on top of Ravaillion in the centre, Nelson drained 20 shots and Ward and Mentor gave Queensland's shooters fits.
The error-riddled, penalty-plagued Firebirds scored just once in the first five minutes of the third term as Collingwood went on separate scoring bursts of 7-0 and 10-1 to forge a 10-goal three-quarter-time cushion which proved insurmountable.
