Game Preview: Round 13 Vs Southside Flyers

The UC Capitals will need to bounce back against the Southside Flyers at home this Saturday if they are to continue pushing for a playoff berth. A disappointing away loss against Townsville broke a three-game winning streak and leaves the Caps in a perilous position, sitting in 6th place on the WNBL table.
A 20-3 run by the Fire in the 3rd quarter burned the Capitals, who will lament a poor night from three-point land where they shot 4/20 from range. A strong 17-point performance from Nicole Munger was not enough as the Townsville big guns stepped up throughout all four quarters.
Townsville captain Courtney Woods led the way, recording 24 points, 11 assists and 4 rebounds, and was ably supported by Lauren Cox.
Not for the first time this season the Caps were left frustrated by their lack of discipline. A dissapointing 21 personal fouls were committed by the side, hampering their efforts. This left the Capitals with the unwanted status of first in WNBL in regard to fouls per game with 20.1.
The Capitals will return home this Saturday for a clash against the bottom placed Southside Flyers. However, while the table tells one story, the head-to-head match ups between the two sides tells another. The defending WNBL champions have come away with the win in both preceeding games against the Capitals this season.
In November, the Capitals travelled to Melbourne looking to make a statement against the reigning champs. After a tight opening quarter, the Flyers made some strong adjustments and outscored the Capitals by 19 points for the remainder of the game.
A month later, the Capitals showed signs of improvement against the Flyers. Sticking with the opposition for the majority of the match. The game was hanging in the balance heading into the clutch minutes before some important shots made by Alice Kunek down the stretch guided the Flyers home.

However, the Capitals will take some confidence in that this clash was the Flyers most recent victory. Since that game on the 4th of December, Southside has lossed nine straight matches, as their lineup has been ravaged by injuries in key positions.
The Capitals will still have to remain wary of their opponents, who have a number of dangerous players in the lineup.
Naz Hillmon has been a standout performer for the Flyers this year, averaging 19.4 points to go with 10.3 rebounds. In the last clash against the Caps, it was duo, Alice Kunek and Maddi Rocci who did the damage with 22 and 21 points respectively.
However, the Capitals also have players in a rich streak of form. Nyadiew Puoch is coming off the back off some standout performances, averaging 19.6 points in her last three games. In addition, the Capitals will be buoyed by the returning Abby Bishop’s improvement in limited minutes. Bishop put up 8 points at 75% shooting to go with 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 1 block, showcasing her veteran value to the side.
“They’ve got a few injuries as well and are really playing a lot with only five people, so we’ve got to be able to play at our pace and really maintain the level of play that we need to have to be able to execute against them.” said coach Paul Gorris.
“Obviously, they’ve got great guards. We know Rocci is good at getting feet in the paint, Dallas Loughridge is having a great season, Tera Reed can both shoot it and put it on the floor and so it’s not just out one on one defense, it has to be our team defense in keeping them out of the paint.”
Rookie point guard Katie Deeble echoed the thoughts of Gorris and expressed the team’s desire to get back in the win column after the loss against Townsville.
“Every day we have to come in and get better and that was just the main focus. We have an end goal of making the finals, so just coming in and making sure we’re getting better every day was his thing today and he (Gorris) pushed us hard today.
I think we’re not in the same spot as where we were when we’ve played them the last two times. I think we’ve really improved and come together as a team. Our team comradery has been really good lately and I think we’re getting better every day.
(We’re) practicing every day, pushing each other, we’re in a different spot to the last two times we’ve played them.” said Deeble.
Victory against the Flyers puts the Caps on six wins for the season and gives them some breathing room in the highly competetive race for the final playoff position.
The game against Southside tips off at 3:00pm this Saturday at the AIS. Get your tickets here.