Flyers clinch the win over determined Flames
It went down to the wire, but the Jayco Southside Flyers came out on top in the final minutes in a gritty 81-77 come from behind win over the Brydens Sydney Uni Flames on Thursday night.
Southside stretched their winning streak to six but were outscored in each of the first three quarters at Townsville Stadium and trailed for the vast majority of the game.
Down 11-2 early, Southside scored the last 13 points of the match after Sydney (4-8) held a 77-68 advantage with four minutes to go.
The Flyers’ late charge overshadowed one of the outstanding individual efforts of the season from Flames forward Anneli Maley.
She scored 19 points and pulled down 17 boards, helping Sydney to a massive 51-30 advantage in the rebound count
Flyers’ centre Liz Cambage top scored with 24 despite spending portions of the third and fourth quarters on the bench after picking up a technical foul to give her four for the game.
Lauren Mansfield provided plenty of the Flames’ early drive scoring 15 of her 21 points in the first half, but centre Lauren Scherf played under ten minutes due to foul trouble
Southside forged ahead by five in the second quarter, but a 13-0 run either side of halftime gave Sydney an eight-point lead.
The Flyers fought back to level, but an 8-0 Sydney run either side of three-quarter time again gave the Flames the upper hand.
But they couldn’t execute offensively down the stretch or stop Blicavs.
“It’s a really hard one like to have a moral victory, because we were leading the majority of the game,” said Flames’ guard Alison Schwagmeyer-Belger, who scored 14.
“However, I’m just so we just so proud of the team, we gave everything we had.”
Sixth-placed Sydney finish their campaign on Sunday in Townsville against Adelaide Lightning, who are one place above the Flames.
Adrian Warren is a freelance contributor to WNBL.basketball
Jayco Southside Flyers 81 (Cambage 24, Mitchell 15, Cole 14)
Brydens Sydney Uni Flames 77 (Mansfield 21, Maley 19, Schwagmeyer-Belger 14).