MVP Monique Fires Townsville To First Win At The Fire Pit.
MVP Monique Fires Townsville To First Win At The Fire Pit.
Fire import Monique Billings bullied her opponents, in a dominant display against Sydney, as Townsville christened its new home in style. The power forward finished as the game’s top scorer and pulled down the most boards. Her 21 points, nine rebounds and two blocks inspired the hosts 75-56 victory. The American insists she has more gears to go to, after building on an impressive WNBL debut, in Adelaide last week.
“I’m never satisfied so yeah I’m really hard on myself. I put a lot of pressure on myself I just want to be the best that I can for the team so it’s always my focus and I feel like I can always get better at that.”
Townsville coach Shannon Seebohm believes there is more to come from the influential big.
“I think what we’re seeing right now is probably just the surface of what she’s capable of. She’s played fantastic so far and I think the more time she spends here the better and better she’s going to get.”
Fellow import Sug Sutton was all action in her first game for the Fire. The point guard’s disruptive defence forced several Sydney turnovers. Seebohm noting her effort out of possession was indicative of the team’s mindset, after quarter time. “I think we held them to something like 7 points in the second quarter and then I thought we carried that through into the second half as well.”
Sutton scored 12 points, while Nadeen Payne, and Zitina Aokuso also hit double digits with 18 and 10 respectively.
Former Fire point guard Shyla Heal had a quiet night despite leading the Flames scoring stats with 12 points. Seebohm crediting his players for limiting her impact.
“Obviously, we know what she’s capable of and we were going to do everything we could to not allow her to come in here and have 25 points and I think the girls were very aware of that and they did a good job locking into that. There was probably only one or two times where she got some space to get a shot off.”
Keely Froling scored 11 points for the visitors in her home town.
The Flames will look to secure their first win when they host Melbourne in round four. The Fire will try to remain perfect, against the Southside Flyers, in Dangegong.