Lynx now turn full attention to Fire

Perth Lynx coach Ryan Petrik was much happier with his team’s start against Geelong United but there was one eye still on the Townsville Fire which turns to two now ahead of potentially four WNBL games in-a-row against them.

The Lynx did suffer a shock loss to the Adelaide Lightning on the road the previous Saturday which meant that they had to beat Geelong at Bendat Basketball Centre on Friday to set up this Sunday’s battle with Townsville.

Perth started strongly on return to their home venue to lead 52-30 by half-time and then to end up recording the comfortable 95-77 victory to see them all square on a 15-5 record with the Fire heading into their match up in Townsville this Sunday.

The winner of that game will finish the WNBL regular season in second position to earn home court advantage in a third straight semi-final match up between the two teams.

However, before fully focusing on Townsville, Petrik did want to see his team return to form against Geelong last Friday and he liked what he saw particularly in the first half.

“The first half was really pleasing and the second half was just about trying to get out of there with a win knowing that for us, at least, the game didn’t mean a lot other than trying to get some form,” Petrik said.

“The reality for us is that it’s Townsville that matters for us next week and it has for a little while. Our starts have been a bit lackadaisical so there was a couple of kicks in the butt during the week and we don’t always know why we don’t start like that.

“If we had the answer we would do it all the time, but we were very good in the first quarter in this game.”

Even without Alex Ciabattoni against Geelong, the ball movement was impressive for Perth with Miela Sowah ending up scoring 22 points, Steph Gorman 19, Ally Wilson 15, Laeticia Amihere 14, Amy Atwell nine and Anneli Maley eight to go with 14 rebounds.

“Why did we have multiple scorers? We generally move the ball pretty well and the way they were guarding some of the actions meant that we could get to on the ball and therefore would have options,” Petrik said.

“When our bigs roll and get their head on the rim, that forced tags and that forced split extras so we had some options. But we generally do move the ball pretty well, it’s just a matter of if we shoot it well or not is a different story.”

As for Gorman, not only did she score the 19 points to go with nine rebounds, five assists and two steals while making 5/9 from three-point range, her defence was outstanding.

She strengthened her claims to win the Defensive Player of the Year award in the process by showing her versatility by guarding some of the bigs from Geelong.

“It was a bit of strategy and also when we do individuals she beats the heck out of me so I know she doesn’t mind fighting bigger people,” Petrik said.

“We know she can guard bigger players and that’s the beauty of Steph’s defensive side is that she can guard multiple positions so not just is she really good on the ball, but she can switch on to multiple different type of bodies.”

Now that there are no games in the way first, Petrik can fully focus on trying to plot the downfall of Townsville on the road this Sunday with the prize to be two have potentially two of the three semi-final games played in Perth.

Petrik is just focused on trying to win on Sunday to then be able to stay home the following weekend to play host to Game 1.

“It’s a really funky situation in the sense of it would have been nicer had this game not mattered so much so then you could have essentially just let it play out without showing much, and saving it for real the week after,” Petrik said.

“But the reality is the winner gets to play at home the following week. Then there’s the added bonus is that both teams have to fly to Melbourne the very next day for an awards night which seems super smart.

“Then we get back to Perth on Tuesday and Townsville go back to Townsville, and we have a finals series starting on the weekend. Whoever does the fixturing doesn’t live in Perth or Townsville, I know that.”

Petrik might not particularly be happy about the scheduling, but he will just be focusing on controlling what he can and that’s trying to find a way to beat Townsville in potentially three of four games the two teams will play one another in over the next three weeks.

“It’s a funky way to end the season and we’ve also never played four games in-a-row against anyone, which could potentially happen,” Petrik said.

“That’s funky too and then the other part to it is that we play Townsville every dang year in the playoffs so I don’t think there’s a lot of secrets between the coaches.

“Obviously some of the players have changed but we’ve been doing this dance for a little while so we kind of know all their tricks and what each other’s plans will be generally. There’s not a lot of secrets left between us I don’t think.”