Vipers sting Hornets in a thriller to clinch third place on ONA ladder | Photos

The Lynne Middleton-coached outfit turned a 12-2 quarter time deficit into a 25-18 half time lead in one of the side's best quarters of 2019.

However, the Hornets whittled that seven-point lead back to just four points at the final break before a hectic final quarter saw the students throw everything they had at the Vipers in a match which turned to a tense finish, which Middleton jokingly said "took three years off my life".

"It was very tight towards the end when they came at us ... Hornets are a good team, a young team and they're improving," Middleton said.

"We did allow them to come back in after we made a lot of unforced errors but they steadied in the final few minutes."

The second-point spark was a whole-team effort according to Middleton, with the defensive efforts across the court lifting, with Teigan Colley's rebounds and shooting crucial up front, Bridie McClure controlling centre court and Bec Kwa dominant down back.

"Our defensive circle of Kwa, the evergreen Sheryll Selwood and Abby Tilburg were excellent," she said.

While the win wasn't massive in margin, it was huge in magnitude for the rest of the season, with the Vipers leapfrogging the Hornets to slide into third place, equal on points with the students but ahead on percentage.

"We know we've got to pull back some of those losses from the first half of the year and make sure we keep in the top four," Middleton said.

"We've got lots of teams nipping at our heels, especially the Life Studio sides."

In the other games, Life Studio defeated their clubmates Mid West Eyes 49-36, Craig Harvey Mechanical claimed a massive win over Hawks Royals 60-28, while Orange City Epiroc and Life Studio Sportspower's clash was deferred.