West Coast Fever recovered from a sloppy start to outmuscle a determined NSW Swifts 63-55 in front of almost 5000 fans at RAC Arena.

In their first home game in 630 days, it looked as if Fever were going to beat themselves with poor passing and feeding to superstar shooter Jhaniele Fowler.

But positional changes, more composed ball movement and late dominance under the post by Fowler, who scored 58 goals at 92 per cent, ensured Fever are now just one win away from eliminating their 12-premiership point deficit in just three rounds.

Fever were messy with their ball use in the first term, coughing up eight general play turnovers to the Swifts’ four as they let the visitors skip out to a four-goal lead at the first break.

Star centre Verity Charles was the main offender with six first half turnovers, as her normally strong connection with Fowler was off.

Coach Stacey Marinkovich reshuffled the line-up, with Jess Anstiss going into centre as the Fever changed the momentum to pull the margin back to 28-26 by half-time.

“Playing back at home in front of a big crowd, you’ve got to think last year in a hub, it was nothing like this, so everyone’s still getting used to it,” Marinkovich said on the rough start.

“We’re still finding our feet, we’ve only had a few pre-season games so you know it’s going to be a bit jaggered at the beginning but I think it’s how you bounce with that and adjust in those moments.

“Usually when you look at a scoreline and you win by eight you go ‘it should’ve felt a bit different’, but that just shows the intensity of the game, the ferocity out there between the competition of the two teams.

“I was just really proud of our girls, whilst we didn’t execute well in parts of the game, we held in there and when it mattered most is when we dug deep and I think that’s the part we’ve evolved as a club.”

Fever got a lucky break in the third when goal keeper Sarah Klau caught a straight elbow to the head, seeing her sidelined to stop the bleeding.

This left undersized defender Lauren Moore to deal with Fowler, giving away a whopping 12cm in height that she could not overcome as the Jamaican took full advantage.

With Klau sidelined, Fever gained a lead for the first time since the first quarter.

Wing attack Emma Cosh (22 goal assists) began to feed Fowler with a number of high balls to the shooter’s advantage and only once Klau finally came back onto the court did the Swifts look like stopping the momentum.

Sasha Glasgow’s introduction at goal attack changed the way the Fever attacked, with the recruit’s movement forcing Klau and goal defender Maddy Turner out of the circle which gifted Fowler more space to work under the post.

For all the momentum shifts in the game, Fever were the team to find another level late in the match with a big intercept by captain Courtney Bruce the catalyst to the strong finish.

Fowler put the icing on the cake with a super shot on the buzzer which nearly tore the house down.