For the second time this season, the team’s travelled west
Townsville’s taken a collective deep breath since that heart-pounding comeback victory over Adelaide and the players are ready to go again in Perth. For the second time this season, the team’s travelled west and the visitors will be shooting for the same outcome as their result earlier this month, after edging a physical and close contest 80-84.
While the Fire’ returned to winning ways against the Lightning following back to back defeats, the Lynx head into the clash on a 3 game winning streak. The hosts sit second on the ladder with their only loss so far this season delivered by Townsville.
The game will be a special occasion for Fire Co-captain Lauren Mansfield, who’ll make her 200th WNBL appearance. The milestone comes against one of the guard’s former sides. She played 2 seasons with Perth.
Coach’s Comments
It would have been easy enough to copy and paste a paragraph from the previous Perth preview article when it comes to the coach’s game plan. The Lynx don’t hide how they play and Shannon Seebohm isn’t hiding how his side will try and slow down the free scoring hosts, who are averaging over 88 points per game. Basically… If it isn’t broke don’t fix it…
“For us it’s just honestly knuckling down and defending the 3 point line and defending in transition against them.”
Alicia Froling led the points and rebounds (25-10) in the round 2 battle but she hasn’t been a scoring spearhead in her last three outings. That’s not down to a drop off in her work rate, according to the man in charge.
“She picks up a lot of points off offensive rebounds and effort plays and things like that, and you know she’s going to continue to do that.”
Seebohm’s certain Perth has scouted how’s the forward’s been kept quite in recent weeks.
I think teams have probably started defending her and us a little bit differently in the last couple of weeks, so that’s on us to make some adjustments and ensure we’re putting her in some positions where she can take advantage of how she’s being guarded. So we’re working on that and I’ve got no doubt she’ll be back putting up numbers again real soon.
Tip off in at the Bendat Basketball centre is at 6.30pm local time, translating to 8.30pm on Queensland clocks. You can catch the action on ESPN and 9NOW, or follow the club’s social media for score updates.
