Minor premiers Townsville Fire have stifled the three-point capturing risk of Perth to document their thirteenth straight WNBL win and take a 1-0 lead of their best-of three semi-final sequence.
Lynx captain Sami Whitcomb scored the primary 5 factors of the sport, however that was Perth’s greatest benefit and Townsville managed the sport for a lot of the second half on their method to an 81-68 victory.
Livewire guard Steph Reid sparked Townsville with a game-high 24 factors, capturing at 66 per cent from the sphere.
Late season recruit Shyla Heal ignited the Fire off the bench with 14 factors together with the primary 5 of the second quarter which swelled a two-point quarter-time lead.
Townsville broke open a beforehand shut sport, scoring the final 11 factors of the primary half to guide 48-37.
Perth had a disastrous previous few seconds of the half
They trailed by six with six seconds to go, however Tayah Burrow dedicated an unsportsmanlike foul on Karlie Samuelson, who made two free throws after which nailed a protracted distance three-pointer on the buzzer.
Townsville’s lead by no means dipped beneath six factors within the second half, with Samuelson contributing 13 factors, Tianna Hawkins 11 and veteran Mikaela Ruef plundering 12 rebounds.
Lynx captain Whitcomb saved her aspect within the sport with 22 factors, however lacked constant offensive help aside from centre Lauren Scherf who battled onerous, tallying 18 factors, six rebounds and 5 assists.
Forward Chloe Bibby, who averages 16 factors a sport, was held to 2 factors, each from the free-throw line, the place Perth made all 17 of their makes an attempt.
Perth dedicated eight extra turnovers and had been held to a rating 20 factors beneath their season common as they could not get their working sport going or their usually efficient three-point capturing.
They made simply one in every of 15 three-point makes an attempt and went the most effective a part of the final 28 minutes with out nailing one, after their solely profitable shot simply over two minutes into the second quarter.
“We know how well they shoot the ball and we have to guard the three-point line to be able to beat them, so I thought we did that pretty well,” Fire coach and newly-crowned coach of the yr Shannon Seebohm informed Fox Sports.
“I expect them to shoot better when we go back to Perth so we need to go up another notch as well.
“Perth are an amazing crew, in all probability the most effective offensive crew In the league, so there’s in all probability a number of areas we should be a bit higher going into Perth, however all in all to carry them underneath 70 factors, actually pleased with that.”
Game two might be performed in Perth on Sunday.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
