FIRE BRINGS IN THE NEW YEAR IN STYLE
FIRE BRINGS IN THE NEW YEAR IN STYLE
Townsville returned to winning ways in front of close to 2800 spectators at the Fire Pit on New Years eve, arresting a 2 game slide, in dominant fashion. The ladder leaders beat Perth by 87 -64 to seal an in season series win over the side sitting second, ahead of a third meeting between the teams, on Wednesday night. The top of the table clash was locked up at the main break but the hosts provided fireworks, when they returned to the court, falling just 1 bucket shy of doubling their opponents second half total of 26 points.
Sami Whitcomb Top scored with 26 points. Perth coach Ryan Petrick loved watching The former Lynx leader light it up when she played under him… He didn’t enjoy his front row seat to the Sami show this time though.
“When she’s on she’s world class for a reason and she really torched us in that second half.”
Mikaela Ruef racked up another double double. The forward finished with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Zitina Aokuso collected 7 boards to go along with 11 points while Courtney Woods dropped 21 points and dished out 5 dimes. Point guard Steph Reid hit 8 points and topped the stats sheets for assists and steals with 7 and 4 respectively.
Multiple big guns for all firing for the reigning champions, made them hard to contain according to Perth skipper Anneli Maley.
“Townsville are a really talented group and they’re coached really well and they have a deep squad.”
Townsville’s starters played massive minutes. Coach Shannon Seebohm kept substitutions limited as momentum built in the third quarter.
“Especially once we seized control of that second half, I wanted to continue that. That group had a really good flow going.”
He hopes his players pick up where they left off, when they get round 10 and 2024 underway, at home again.
“It’s an interesting concept like you don’t do it very often, like apart from playing in the finals you don’t really geta chance to play the same team twice in a row.”
Tickets to Wednesday night’s game available here.