TOWNSVILLE TOO STRONG FOR BENDIGO

The Fire made a successful start to a tough triple header on the road, downing Bendigo in Geelong. The ladder leaders led narrowly at the main break before going on to secure a comfortable 86-72 win. Cassandra Brown exploded off the bench in the first 2 periods posting 15 of her 17 points. The import’s influence somewhat surprised the hosts, who did a solid job on Townsville’s starters in the first half. Bendigo Coach Kennedy Kereama felt the Canadian’s contribution gave the Fire a platform to build off.

“They’re a very talented side you know Cas brown comes out and has an outstanding game of basketball.”

Steph Reid played the entire contest and finished with a game high 23 points to go along with 3 steals and 3 assists. Sami Whitcomb dished out dimes for fun, finishing with more of them than she did points. The captain found her teammates more freely after Townsville coach Shannon Seebohm tweaked the team’s offence.

“At half time we made a couple of adjustments offensively, what we wanted to look at on the pick and roll with Sami being able to come off and make some plays and I thought she did a great job of that. And she ended with 9 assists, you know probably didn’t have a great shooting game, but she led the plus minus for us and did a great job.”

Mikaela Ruef record her third straight double double after again dominating the glass. The forward had 12 rebounds and 11 points.

The visitors victory was well deserved, and another solid effort out of possession pleased Seebohm.

“Our shooting’s been a bit up and down a lately but the one thing we’ve really focused on is being a great defensive team and again I think the first half we a little bit lacked in some areas and probably not as intense in what we’ve been in some of the other matches as well and I thought we did a better job in the second overall.”

The Fire’s focus now turns to battling the Boomers twice in round 11. Both clashes are in Melbourne.