Boomers withstand fast-finishing Flames
Article via wnbl.basketball
Despite a fourth quarter charge from the Brydens Sydney Uni Flames, the Boomers have held on to a 86-64 win in the Chemist Warehouse WNBL on Thursday night.
With such a tight race right now for a top two spot between themselves, the Southside Flyers and UC Capitals, the Boomers simply couldn’t afford a slip up against a Sydney Uni team on Thursday who were playing to keep their finals hopes alive.
To the credit of the Flames with their backcourt of Lauren Mansfield and Ali Schwagmeyer-Belger refusing to give in, they did strike some form closing the third period with a 14-6 run, and then hitting 12 of the first 14 points of the fourth.
That had them back within 15 and a sniff but Ezi Magbegor shut the door with her own run of six straight points in response before Penina Davidson closed out the game with the last seven points for the Boomers including a big triple on the buzzer.
Melbourne set up the win in the first half holding Sydney Uni to 28 per cent shooting and to miss all seven three-point attempts while shooting 60 per cent themselves from the field and hitting 6/10 from deep with nine players already scoring.
The standouts for the Flames were their starting backcourt with Schwagmeyer-Belger ending up with 21 points and eight rebounds with Mansfield producing 22 points and three assists on 6/10 shooting from downtown.
“It’s nice to see the ball go in and my teammates did a good job of finding me when I was feeling good but it’s always hard to be happy when you lose,” Mansfield said.
“We obviously didn’t have a good start to the game but in the second half we tried to start again with the scores zero and I think we did win the third and fourth quarters.
“I think we showed our heart and character because we still fought hard and competed even when we weren’t playing well, and we showed we can compete with the better teams.”
Both teams both face the winless Bendigo Spirit next up with the Boomers first up on Saturday and then the Flames on Sunday with both games in Cairns.
Deakin Melbourne Boomers – 86 (Magbegor 23, Garrick 15, Madgen 13)
Brydens Sydney Uni Flames – 64 (Mansfield 22, Schwagmeyer-Belger 21, Nakkasoglu 6, Burton 6)