Wilson thriving in Lynx system

January 23, 2025 | Perth Lynx news

Ally Wilson is showcasing her full arrays of talent this WNBL season with the Perth Lynx as a playmaking and scoring point guard, and she’s happy to perform whatever role is needed to help her team win.

Wilson has joined the Lynx this season potentially as that final piece to the puzzle in terms of local players that can help them get over the hump that elusive WNBL championship with Perth having been to Game 3’s of Grand Final Series in two of the past three seasons.

There were minimal changes for the Lynx coming into the 2024/25 season with the switching of imports with Aari McDonald not returning and Laeticia Amihere coming in, and then Wilson signed as that replacement starting point guard.

Now 17 games into the season and Wilson is playing tremendous basketball to have been instrumental in the Lynx currently sitting in second position with a 13-4 record with just four games remaining ahead of finals.

Having previously played in the WNBL with the Townsville Fire, Sydney Flames, Adelaide Lightning and then last season, the Bendigo Spirit, Wilson has made the move west for the first time and is thriving with the Lynx.

Wilson is putting up 14.4 points, 4.9 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.6 steals for the Lynx while her last two games have been brilliant against Bendigo and Southside with her averaging 28 points and eight rebounds.

The 30-year-old is just happy to play whatever role is needed to help the Lynx win and put themselves in a good position to make a good run at this championship.

“Me being a point guard, I sort of just try to do whatever the team needs me to do in each game for us to get a win,” Wilson told 91.3 SportFM.

“Sometimes that’s me having five points and 10 assists, and sometimes that means scoring 29 points or whatever it is.

“I’m sort of happy to play whatever part the team needs me to do to get the wins, and at the moment I just feel like we need a bit more scoring from me to be in games, and to win them. I’m just happy to do whatever’s needed of me.”

While Wilson has been nothing short of brilliant the last two games for the Lynx, the results were mixed firstly with the loss on the road to Bendigo and then coming back home and beating Southside in the last game of the season at the Perth High Performance Centre.

The two games were almost mirror images too with the Lynx firstly overrun by the Spirit in the top-of-the-table clash before they came from behind to produce a huge fourth quarter to beat the Flyers.

Looking back and Wilson has mixed feelings over how the last two games played out.

“The Bendigo game was a disappointing one in terms of us leading that game for 32 minutes but a couple of lapses there in the fourth changed the momentum, and ultimately Bendigo took that one from us,” she said.

“It’s pleasing in the sense that they’re the top-of-the-table at the moment and we know that our best is good enough, we just need to play it for the full 40 minutes.

“Then to follow up with Southside who are bottom of the ladder at the moment, we definitely didn’t serve our best in the first half and we found ourselves down by about 15, which was a little bit disappointing, but I was really proud of the group to come together at half-time and get a comeback win because we really needed that one to stay in second position.”

Wilson is now just 17 games into her first season at the Lynx, but already feels she has found her ideal WNBL situation firstly to be playing under coach Ryan Petrik, then with the teammates she’s playing alongside and just the lifestyle in general she’s living in Perth.

“I’m absolutely loving it and I feel like I’m thriving in the system that Ryan Petrik coaches here at Perth,” Wilson said.

“It’s fast paced, it’s exciting and it’s all about shooting the ball in the first eight seconds of the shot clock if you can.

“That all really suits me down to the ground as a player so I feel like I’ve been thriving in that environment and how Ryan coaches really suits me.

“The group of girls have been amazing too and I’ve come into a group where the core was together from last year and they’ve all been so welcoming. I feel like I’ve just fit in with them seamlessly which has been really good.”