Sowah continuing as Lynx’s breakout star

Whether it’s married life that agrees with her or just getting rewarded for the hard work she’s put in to keep getting better, Miela Sowah has had a breakout WNBL season at the Perth Lynx but she’s far from content.

Sowah is having an outstanding second season with the Lynx as one of the more exciting emerging guard talents in the country showing her scoring and shooting potential, but also her ever improving ability with the ball in hand as a playmaker and point guard as well.

She has been recognised at the awards night this week too including being named to the All-WNBL Second Team along with being nominated for Breakout Player of the Year before also winning the Lynx on the Rise Award on Wednesday at the club’s awards night.

As good as the 24-year-old is playing, all she’s worried about now is trying to go one step better than last season with the Lynx with that starting with the semi-final series against the Townsville Fire which begins with Game 1 on Saturday evening at Bendat Basketball Centre.

Feeling coming into the game

Now that the regular season is done and finished in dramatic fashion in Townsville and that the WNBL and Lynx award nights are behind her this week, Sowah is just grateful to be firmly focused on Saturday evening’s Game 1.

“I’m feeling really good and it’s quite good now to just fully lock in and take care of business,” Sowah said.

“Obviously our film review for that last game is super relevant because we’re versing them again in this series so we’ve focused on a few things that we might change, and need to tighten up on.

“We’re feeling good and I think we’re all super excited to play, and then obviously we have a bit of redemption in our blood from last year so we are excited for this opportunity.”

Looking back on Sunday’s game

Now that the dust has settled on Sunday’s very last game of the regular season which determined home court advantage, Sowah is still trying to wrap her head around everything that happened.

Both teams at different points looked like having the game, and home court advantage, wrapped up, in the end Sowah was just delighted to get the win on the back of two late steals from Steph Gorman and Laeticia Amihere for the game winning scores from Anneli Maley and Alex Ciabattoni.

“It definitely was a rollercoaster of a game and I definitely don’t think that we played the best style of basketball that we can play,” Sowah said.

“But a win’s a win and we were able to scrape it through and in that last 45 seconds we were down by six, and it almost looked impossible.

“But we got two massive steals and knocked down the shots too so it just shows that we have that fight. Reflecting on it, it was pretty awesome to see that we’ve got that in us to pull it out even when it might look a little bit impossible at one stage.”

Own game continues to thrive

Sowah’s improvement season on season has been mighty impressive. She already did have a good season in her first one at the Lynx in 2023/24 putting up 10.3 points a game in a career-high 23.3 minutes.

That led into a standout NBL1 North season at the North Gold Coast Seahawks where she had 28.9 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 17 appearances to come into the new WNBL season.

Now her upward trajectory has continued with 15.4 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists this season with the Lynx, but what matters ultimately to her is doing what she can to help her team win.

“I am really excited with how my game is coming along. Definitely one of my mottos is to get better every single day, and if you add that up over a year it’s 365 days of getting better,” Sowah said.

“That was kind of a goal from the last WNBL season to this one to keep on getting better, and it’s always exciting to see your hard work pay off. The job’s not done though.

“We have to keep playing our best basketball as a team and I have to keep trying to play better too to help us go one step better than last year.”

Becoming an all-round player

In order to try and become that complete player that Sowah wants to be her focus is on making sure she works on all areas of her game. Clearly you can see that paying off with the way she’s able to contribute for the Lynx in so many ways.

“One thing that has been a goal of mine long-term is to become a complete player and that includes playmaking, assists and defence,” Sowah said.

“From last season to this one I had a couple of specific goals like defence and the playmaking was another big one that I wanted to really improve on.

“You can always work on everything in your game, but I had some specific things I wanted to work on. Then once this season is over I’ll look back on this one and see what things I can improve more on.”

Playing as a married woman

Not only was it a big off-season leading into this WNBL campaign for Sowah with the work she did on her game and the outstanding basketball she played at the Seahawks, but she also became a married woman.

Clearly whether it’s being married to Josh or having a change in surname has worked for her given the outstanding season she’s put together with the Lynx.

“The new name did take some getting used to,” she said.

“I’m more used to it now, but at the start of the season it was a crack up when people would call out ‘Sowah’ and I had no idea they were talking to me. But now I’m a bit more used to it and I feel like a bit of a new person with a fresh start.

“He arrived for this stint this week and he comes over a month at a time. He’ll stay for a month and then go back away for a month and-a-half just because he has his own business that’s based in Brisbane where all his clientele is.

“He hasn’t fully made the transition just yet but it’s been awesome having him here for longer stints and getting to be around the team and my teammates too.”

Basketball running in the family

They might no longer share the Goodchild surname, but Sowah isn’t the only part of her family heavily involved in basketball, and the WNBL, albeit in a very different way.

Her sister, Briana, is quickly becoming one of the more recognisable faces and voices in the game, and is on the microphone for Sydney Flames home games as one of her on-going roles.

Miela isn’t quite show what to think of her distraction tactics during away games for the Lynx in Sydney though.

“It’s good until she does everything to distract me during the game,” Sowah said.

“It’s weird enough having her scream out defence but then she shows this crazy picture of us from when we were about 10 with tape on our nose and all that.

“I try my best to block her out but that picture really did distract me and I couldn’t believe she did that, but it didn’t pay off for her a second time.

“It’s actually so awesome and it’s like a dream being able to work in the same job but just with different roles. And getting to see her when I visit Sydney is absolutely awesome and it’s so much fun to get to see a bit more of the fam while still getting to play basketball.”

Looking for big home support

Back to the job at hand and while it’s nice to not have to get on a plane before Saturday’s Game 1 by playing it at home, the other great bonus for the Lynx is having the Perth crowd behind them at Bendat Basketball Centre.

Sowah is looking forward to have a packed house full of cheering fans behind them to try to help them go up one-nil in the series by the end of Saturday night.

“I remember last year in our semi-final series it was packed out and the energy definitely gives us a home court advantage,” Sowah said.

“We’re definitely hoping for that again and we’d love to see it be a sell out which would be absolutely amazing.

“That always helps with the atmosphere and if you have the cheers in your favour it definitely helps with your energy, and gives you that bit of an extra boost.”