Perth Lynx Preview – Home to Southside Flyers (HPC)

January 18, 2025 | Perth Lynx news

Perth Lynx did plenty right on Wednesday night despite the eventual WNBL loss to the Bendigo Spirit but now there can’t be any let up in effort at home to the Southside Flyers on Saturday night.

The Lynx were leading by as much as 12 points with top spot on the line on Wednesday night in Bendigo before giving up 30 points in the fourth quarter to end up losing by nine.

That means that Perth does stay in second position in the WNBL with a 12-4 record, but it’s two losses now behind the league-leading Spirit and only one loss ahead of the third placed Townsville Fire.

That makes it a tight race now in the run home for a top two finish making every game important for the Lynx to not slip up to remain second and that starts on Saturday night against the Flyers.

It’s the last of three game of the season also for the Lynx at the Perth High Performance Centre and while the Flyers are struggling having lost their last four, and are going through a horror injury run, Perth can’t afford to take anything for granted in the Grand Final rematch.

Southside will be without Bec Cole and Mikki Vaughn now for the rest of the season while still without Nikita Young and Carley Ernst on Saturday night.

However, it’s still a Flyers team who competed hard to lose by just 10 points in Townsville last Saturday with Naz Hillmon delivering 27 points and 11 rebounds, Maddi Rocci 14 points, six boards and four assists, and Alice Kunek nine points and three rebounds.

Following Wednesday night’s tough loss in Bendigo, Perth now can’t afford a slip up against the Flyers on Saturday night to maintain their hold on second position with Townsville breathing right down their necks.

“We’ve been probably thinking ahead for a little while now and once you get to that 11, 12 win number you can start doing that,” coach Ryan Petrik said.

“That was a bit of a problem on Sunday where the girls might have been thinking ahead to Bendigo versus focusing on the Geelong game, and we almost coughed that one up.

“We’ve been looking at Bendigo and Townsville for a while, and what we think can beat them come playoff time.

“We’ve been planning and preparing for Townsville and Bendigo for a long time, and people have just been talking Perth and Bendigo, but Townsville are only one win behind us and have a new import.

“There really is the big three so we need to keep winning to try and stay second, but in the coaches room a lot of our thinking is about Townsville and Bendigo.”

Looking back on Wednesday’s top of the table clash with Bendigo, Petrik saw plenty of positives especially with 14 second chance points to six, 17 points off turnovers to 10, 15 fast break points to 12, and attempting 83 field goals 72, and 20 free-throws to 13.

However, what ultimately counts is the score and the Spirit went 15/29 from three to the 9/32 from the Lynx, and overall shot 48 per cent from the field opposed to 37.

While it’s never fun to lose, there was still a lot for the Lynx to take out of it when the disappointment of losing wore off for Petrik.

“We did a really good job for 30 odd minutes but they were the best team on the planet in the fourth,” Petrik said.

“Full credit to Bendigo but there’s plenty of positives and normally if you are going to take 11 more field goal than they are, you’re going to shoot seven more free-throws than they do, you’re going to get six more offensive rebounds than they do, and you’re going to turn the ball over times less than they do, and you’ll lead for 31 minutes, you don’t expect to lose by 10.

“That’s pretty crazy but the reality is they go 6/7 from three in the fourth and good luck beating them. They were fantastic in the fourth quarter and just too good in the end.”

CYGNETT WNBL SEASON 2024/25

Round 12 – Perth Lynx v Southside Flyers

Venue – Perth High Performance Centre

Tip-off – Saturday January 18, 7:30pm AWST

Tickets – Available by clicking here

How to watch – Live, free and on demand on 9Now