Southside Flyers have opened the WNBL post-season in spectacular type after holding off a second-half comeback from cross-town rivals Melbourne Boomers to report an 84-76 victory in sport one in all their semi-final match-up.
After finishing a 3-0 sweep over Melbourne through the common season, the Flyers regarded set to proceed their dominance towards the defending champions on the State Basketball Centre on Wednesday night time after charging out to a 37-19 lead halfway via the second quarter.
With league MVP Cayla George and All WNBL first workforce member Kristy Wallace nullified by Southside’s stifling defence, import Tiffany Mitchell produced a 36-point masterclass to maintain Melbourne within the contest – together with an exhilarating seven-point burst to open the fourth quarter because the Boomers minimize the margin to 2 factors.
But the Flyers responded with a pivotal 11-0 run to safe the win and take a 1-0 lead within the best-of-three sequence.
“There were a few hairy moments but this is finals basketball, every team is good,” Flyers guard Rebecca Cole stated after holding off a stern problem from their native rivals within the closing minutes.
“When (Melbourne) go on those runs, we just have to weather the storm and go back to our roots, and that is we need to play good defence.”
Southside’s defensive efforts pressured Melbourne into committing 18 turnovers and restricted key duo George and Wallace to a mixed complete of 11 factors on 4-of-22 taking pictures.
Sara Blicavs drilled three clutch long-range bombs within the fourth quarter on her option to a team-high 18 factors whereas Cole chipped in with 17 factors for the victors.
The Flyers grabbed the ascendency halfway via the primary quarter as their defensive work produced a sequence of Melbourne errors, permitting captain Abby Bishop and Kayla Thornton to mix for a run of eight unanswered factors to arrange a 25-15 benefit.
After falling behind by 18 within the second interval, the Boomers managed to chip away on the deficit with Olivia Nelson-Odod becoming a member of Mitchell to assist scale back the Flyers’ result in 47-35 by half-time.
Displaying the shape that noticed her earn All WNBL Second Team honours, Mitchell scored the opening seven factors of the ultimate quarter and the Boomers quickly trailed by simply two factors because of three-pointers from Mia Murray and Leilani Mitchell.
But Southside rediscovered their offensive circulate and Melbourne misplaced momentum after Wallace fouled out with six minutes to play.
The Flyers will lock in a 3rd grand closing look within the final 4 seasons if they’ll defeat the Boomers in sport two of the sequence at Melbourne Sports Stadium – Parkville on Saturday.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
