FIRE RISES FROM THE ASHES AGAINST ADELAIDE
The Fire returned to the winner’s circle with one of the most incredible triumphs in the club’s history. Townsville turned a 20 point half time deficit into an unbelievable win 53-47 win, on the back of remarkably restricting Adelaide to just 7 second half points. With Christmas approaching the hosts produced their best impersonation of the Scrooge in the third quarter, offering the Lightning little to work with. A theme which continued for the remainder of the contest, with the stirring comeback completed in front of 2300 spectators.
It was all Adelaide in the opening half. The visitors scored 9 unanswered points midway through the opening quarter as they jumped out to an 9-18 advantage. The lead was soon double digits in with the Lightning producing plenty of baskets before Townsville could settle into a defensive structure. The home side also struggled in offence and went to the dressing room trailing 20-40.
What happened next had to be seen to be believed… Courtney Woods followed up a confidence boosting triple with another quick bucket, before fellow Co-captain Alicia Froling got in on the act under the rim. At the other end, an aggressive, intense Townsville defence, unrecognisable from that of the first half, held the Lightning at bay repetitively. Lauren Cox claimed baskets either side of an Adelaide timeout to cut the margin to single figures. Isobel Borlase hit a fadeaway for the South Australians to ensure didn’t go scoreless in the third period, which ended 36-42 in favour of the visitors, after woods and Alex Fowler finished it with successful free throws.
Having won the third quarter 16 points to 2, momentum was well and truly with the players in orange and they weren’t about to waste it. Fowler and Woods combined for another 4 points, this time the traditional way while Adelaide, unable to adjust to Townsville’s tough defence become further flustered. When Cox added to her tally the crowd erupted… A first lead for the home side… Even the most die-hard Fire fans never expected. Now playing from behind the Lightning lifted, levelling then retaking the lead. A Fowler floating jumper brought the scores back to even an agitated Adelaide fouled multiple times in the final 2 minutes. The Fire hit 7 from 8 at the stripe to cap off stunning turnaround.
Player Stats
Courtney Woods was the catalyst for Townsville’s terrific comeback delivering 14 of her game high 16 points in the second half. The guard also dished out 3 assists and finished with 5 rebounds and 2 blocks. Alex Fowler was the only other player to reach double digits. The forward contributed 11 points, 5 from the free throw line where she had an 83% accuracy. Her 8 boards topped the rebound count. Lauren Cox claimed 7 and scored 8 points. The import was determined defensively. She paired 3 blocks with 3 steals.
Player & Coach’s Comments
In the post-game interview Shannon Seebohm’s nose didn’t grow when he said his half time speech addressed his side still being able to win the game.
“We talked about it a little bit. The first half we didn’t have any effort or intensity, like there wasn’t a lot of ticker going on to be honest. Kind of just told the players we need to come out and we need to see it. The people that come and watch need to see it regardless of the outcome. We need to play harder and we need to play better on the defensive end and that will hopefully trigger some things on the offensive side.”
The coach praised Alex Fowler’s solid work rate on both sides of the ball.
“I thought she had a tremendous game and a big reason why we won the game was her efforts on defence and contribution in offence.”
Alex Fowler concedes she probably didn’t share Shannon’s half time optimism until the final period.
“Just felt the momentum shifting a lot, I think for us to hold them to 2 points in the third quarter, I think that was the game changer and we were like let’s lock in here and get ready for the rest of it.”
The forward felt the team took confidence in getting repeat stops despite still finding points hard to come by in the low scoring contest.
“It wasn’t the best of our offence but just from the energy on our defence, that opened up the floor for us to be able to play and I think we were able to push the ball a lot more run into things better and find the open players.”
