Despite a 1 point loss The Fire Pit was PUMPING

Dissecting a defeat isn’t something the Fire has had to do in more than 10 months, but when Zitina Aokuso’s buzzer beater against the Flyers failed to drop, Sharp shooter Courtney Woods wasn’t too dejected despite the 74-75 loss leaving a somewhat strange feeling in the dressing room.

“We won’t take this as a massive negative, obviouslywe don’t want this to keep happening but kind of learn from it move onto thenext game.”

The hosts held a 29-24 lead after a high scoring firstquarter and maintained their advantage at half time. They restricted Southsideto just 9 points in the third period to build a double digit margin. But withvictory in sight, the champions stumbled down the stretch, with Woods sinking theironly bucket in the final 3 and a half minutes, the Flyers finished the game ona 13-3 run.

“Even individually we all kind of ride a bit of upsand downs throughout the game. So kind of just all playing well consistentlyfor the 40 minutes is what we’re working towards.”

Townsville’s coach echoed the guard’s assessment of what went wrong. Shannon Seebohm was pleased with some aspects of what hedescribed as another inconsistent showing, similar to his side’s patchyperformance against Bendigo in the opening round.

“It’s not all doom and gloom, we have some lessons tolearn, and I just said to the girls we kind have not yet this season played well at both ends of the floor at the same time. We’re either playing good offence or we’re playing good defence and I think we just need to find a happyplace in the middle there and be a little bit better with both.”

Steph Reid top scored for the Fire with 18 points, shealso delivered a game high 7 assists, while captain Sami Whitcomb was the onlyplayer from either team to reach double figures for rebounds. She dragged down11 boards to go with 11 points.

Townsville will look to bounce back against Canberra, in another home game in round 3. The Capitals clash at the Fire Pitis on Saturday night. You can buy tickets here.