Maley puts faith in mid-range game
Perth Lynx co-captain Anneli Maley knew she was going to do anything but attempt a three with the game on the line in Canberra last Thursday, and she went to the trusty mid-range jumper and walked away the hero.
Maley had been shooting the ball well to start the WNBL season going 19/35 at 54 per cent overall from the field and 8/14 at 57 per cent from three-point range over the first three matches with wins against the Southside Flyers and Adelaide Lightning, and tight loss to the Townsville Fire.
However, her shot just wasn’t falling in Canberra against the UC Capitals last Thursday night and she was fully aware of the fact that she had gone 1/6 from downtown and 2/9 overall from the floor for the contest.
At the same time, she knew that once she caught the pass from Alex Ciabattoni with time running out that she would have to get up a shot of some form to try and avoid the game going to overtime.
What Maley felt most comfortable doing was getting to her mid-range shot even if it’s something her coach Ryan Petrik does his best to discourage.
It worked a treat too with Maley putting up the shot after pulling up off the dribble and knocking it down with 1.6 seconds left on the clock to deliver the 92-90 victory for the Lynx to see them sit on a 3-1 record after the opening four matches of the season.
Hitting the game winner
Maley for the season so far had been shooting the ball well from three-point territory, but she knew it wasn’t her night from deep against the Capitals so she knew she wanted to get inside the arc on that last possession.
Her mid-range shot is what she had the most faith in and that’s why she was most comfortable taking that with the game on the line.
“To be honest, that was probably my worst shooting night of the season so far. I think I was about 0/10 from the field before that and we didn’t have a set play for that possession,” Maley told SEN WA.
“When the ball came to me I knew I didn’t want to shoot a three because my shot wasn’t feeling good, and I knew I can always rely on my mid-range jumper because it’s always a reliable shot for me.
“I knew I just needed to find a way to a mid-range jumper if the ball came to me and as Chibba threw me the ball, I knew I wasn’t shooting a three because they hadn’t been going in. So I knew it was going to be that mid-range jumper.”
Opening four games of season
It has been an impressive start to the WNBL season for the Lynx too with the three victories against the Flyers, Lightning and Capitals with a narrow loss to the Fire at Bendat Basketball Centre thrown in there.
Considering that has all been done without co-captain Amy Atwell and with those four matches jammed well inside a two-week stretch, and Maley is happy with how quickly the team has come together.
“As a team we’ve done really well and we’re missing one of our key players. Without Amy Atwell we’ve come away with us being 3-1 so that’s pretty good,” Maley said.
“At the start of the season you just get the wins when you can because they all count at the pointy end of the season.
“We’re gelling pretty well as a group already which is rare so early in the season to have that chemistry, and it’s been fun. Ryan has us playing a really fun style of basketball as well so he would rather us lose 110-109 rather than going through a slug fest where it’s a 51-50 game.”
Bouncing back from Townsville loss
While the Lynx were still right in the game that they did lose this season against Townsville, Maley and her teammates were fully aware they didn’t play anywhere near their best even before having to be told by their coach.
Petrik did still let them know what he thought of the performance, but the players themselves motivated themselves to hit back and Maley has been pleased with the response on the road with wins against Adelaide and Canberra.
“Rightfully so too, we played terrible in that game and it was like he was telling us news we didn’t already know,” Maley said.
“It’s not like any of us just thought we played the best basketball game of our lives so everyone walked away from that game thinking, dang we were pretty crap hey.
“It wasn’t anything that we didn’t already know and as a playing group we’d already got together and spoken about the things we needed to fix. We have fixed it the last two days and if we hadn’t, I imagine we would have had another tough meeting, but it’s all part of the sport.”
Time to take stock
After playing those first four games of the season in the space of 12 days, the Lynx now have nine days until being back home at the Bendat Basketball Centre to host the Sydney Flames this coming Saturday night.
Maley is glad for having some more time to work on some things with a full week of practice, but really no matter how long there is in between games they try to keep the preparation similar.
“It will be nice to have a week of training together as a full squad in between games and the more time we spend on court together the better,” Maley said.
“Having a good training week under our belts will be good and whether it’s four games in 10 days or one game in seven days, we just have to come out and prepare the same and give the same effort every time we step onto the court.
“That’s what we have to hang our hats on and not have our effort inconsistent from quarter to quarter so we can put together four quarters.”