Game Preview: UC Capitals go on the road to take on the defending champs
After spending the past couple of weeks at home in Canberra, breaking in the newly refurbished AIS Arena, the University of Canberra Capitals travel down south to face the defending champion Southside Flyers at the State Basketball Centre in Victoria.
The Capitals are looking to bounce back from a tough heartbreaking loss at the hands of the Perth Lynx on Thursday night. The Caps battled foul trouble to stars Jade Melbourne and Charli Collier as they faced a nine-point deficit with under three minutes to go in the match.
But through grit and resilience, and some timely contributions from the bench, they were able to tie the game and were one defensive stop away from forcing overtime. Perth’s Anneli Maley had other plans though, hitting a tough contested baseline jumper with 1.6 seconds left to send the Caps to their third straight defeat.
“We had some different lineups out there due to foul trouble but the girls that came off the bench to hold the fort down really did a great job,” said Coach Paul Goriss after the match.
“Now it’s about building consistency off that effort and how we want to play for the rest of the season.”
The Flyers beat the Sydney Kings at home last weekend and will be looking to build off that win. Their lineup is headlined by veterans Alice Kunek (19.7ppg, 6rpg, 41% from 3), Bec Cole (15.7ppg, 6rpg, 4.7apg), and Maddy Rocci (9ppg, 3.7rpg, 6apg, 2spg) as well as American import Naz Hillmon (19ppg, 8.3rpg) of the Atlanta Dream.
One of the subplots of Sunday’s games is Nyadiew Puoch facing her former club for the first time.
“It’s going to feel so different walking into the visitors locker room for the first time. I was there for two years, and that was my intro to the WNBL and they looked after me,” said Puoch.
“They’ve got a lot of vets over there and they’ve got good bigs and good guards, and Kristi’s a great coach, so it’ll be another tough matchup but we’re really looking forward to it.”
Puoch will also be facing off against her younger sister Manuala for the first time in their basketball careers.
“We’ve trained against each other while playing NBL1, but we’ve never really played against each other so I’m sure there will be that initial weirdness to the matchup but it will be fun,” said Puoch.
“I don’t think my mum’s going to come to the game with either of our jerseys, but I think my siblings were saying that whoever wins the game, that’s the jersey they’ll wear for the rest of the day.”
The UC Capitals take on the Southside Flyers at 12.30pm on Sunday 17 November at the State Basketball Centre. Caps fans in or travelling to Melbourne can get their tickets here and if you’re following on TV, the match will be shown live on 9Go!