3- 0 Start to the FIRE SEASON

The JCU Fire made it 3 wins from 3 home games to extend its perfect start to the season and in the process ended handed another championships contender’s its first loss. The hosts led Southside from wire to wire, with their double digit advantage after the opening quarter, rarely threatened. Shannon Seebohm needn’t had worried about his side’s short turnaround from round two, even though the players perhaps gave him cause for concern, leading into the encounter.

“We were a little bit lets just call it lethargic and probably not as focused as I would have liked us to be, going into the game. So it was great we were able to go out and start the game as well as we did.”

He was particularly thrilled with the team’s tenacity out of possession against a high powered offensive unit, led by Australian basketball legend Lauren Jackson.

“Probably apart from that little patch in the second period where Jackson got something like 12 or 14 points in the post or whatever it was, outside of that we made some adjustments and I think the girls did a great job of sticking to it. I’m really happy with how we played.  We’ve said we want to be the best defensive team in the league this year and I think so far we’ve been that.”

Townsville’s own superstar Lauren led all scorers. While Nicholson dropped 25 points, she had plenty of help. Point guard Steph Reid finished with 15, and the front courting pairing of Tianna Hawkins and Mikaela Ruef split 28 evenly. The captain’s confident the scoring will continue to be spread around.

“Because I feel like we’re getting shots all over the court for every player and I feel like when I’m passing it to an open shooter, they’re always going to knock it down.”

Nicholson’s looking forward to battling Bendigo next. The Fire will aim to end the Spirit’s  unbeaten run and take top spot on the ladder outright.

“The confidence is building every game that we play and hopefully that will continue.”

The clash at the Fire Pit isn’t until December due to a FIBA window, Townsville’s coach would rather the mouth-watering matchup was this weekend.

“To be honest it would be good to keep playing I think, but you know every team has the same break, but you know hopefully we build a bit more momentum and start trying to fill this place up and it’ll be awesome.”