Fire face a last roll of WNBL dice

AFTER her team was belted by Sydney in Saturday’s semifinal series opener, Townsville coach Claudia Brassard joked “maybe they should watch the New England Patriots.”

But she was deadly serious when she acknowledged the defending WNBL champions face a serious test of their character after the humbling 42-point defeat.

The league’s decision to extend the semi-finals from a single game to three matches this year has come at the right time for the Fire, who must win Friday’s game two at Townsville.

Much like the Patriots, who recovered from 25 points down to beat Atlanta in this month’s Superbowl, the Fire must dig deep to keep the trophy.

“We were down 50 at one point I think. Of course that’s going to rock our confidence,” Brassard said.

“It’ll be a test of our character. How can we bounce back from this? “Maybe we have to go watch some New England Patriots. Next week’s a new week, we can be thankful it’s a three-game series.”

The Fire’s defence was badly exposed in the 111-69 loss, one of the most lopsided finals games in WNBL history.

A week after ordering greater accountability from her players after a 90-83 home loss to Canberra, a superb Flames did whatever they wanted offensively, shooting 55 per cent from the field.