Fire advance to Grand Final
The JCU Townsville Fire have qualified for a fifth WNBL Grand Final in six seasons after clean-sweeping the Sydney Uni Flames today.
Erasing the pain of last year’s anguish, the Fire, who saw the Flames end their hopes of an historic three-peat during last year’s semi-finals, repaid the favour at Bryden’s Stadium as they clinched a 68-65 win against the defending champions.
The JCU Townsville Fire are though to their fifth Grand Final since 2012/13! We will host the first Grand Final against the @MelbourneBoomer's next Saturday! #FireUpTownsville pic.twitter.com/COyv1ZeP0a
— Townsville Fire (@TownsvilleFire) January 6, 2018
The Fire will now hold home court advantage against the Melbourne Boomers for the best-of-three Grand Final series with game one at Townsville Stadium at 6.30pm next Saturday.
Game two will beheld at the Victorian State Basketball Centre on Thursday, January 18 before game three returns to Townsville Stadium on Sunday, January 21 should it be required.
Tickets to the opening Grand Final will go on sale to members on Monday before being released to the general public on Wednesday.
“Sydney are the defending champions and they’ve had a great season so to come onto their home turf and beat them is pretty special,” Fire coach Claudia Brassard said.
“We knew they were going to grind it out and credit to the girls, our defence up and down the stretch was really good.
“I think we did what we needed to do down the stretch to lock them down a bit and we had that big steal which gave us the lead which was massive.”
Having claimed a 1-0 series lead against the Flames on Thursday, the Fire confronted a new-look Sydney team complete with Tahlia Tupaea, who was cleared to play after missing the entire home-and-away season.
Another slow start was mitigated by some staunch defence as the Fire turned a five-point deficit around to lead by the same margin at half-time.
The Flames reduced the margin to a single basket at the final change, but with the game on the line, the Fire held their nerve as they qualified for yet another championship decider.
Game Over! We’re into the Grand Final & Townsville RSL erupts! #FireUpTownsville pic.twitter.com/dq9SmdgGLk
— Townsville Fire (@TownsvilleFire) January 6, 2018
Suzy Batkovic led the way with 14 points and 10 rebounds to be stranded on 2999 points for the Fire, while Cayla George posted 13 points and eight boards.
Sydney Wiese was named the Recoverite MVP with 14 points, three steals and two assists to lead the Fire to glory.
Click here to see full box scores between the Fire and the Flames.