HIGH FIRE D ANGER
COACH Claudia Brassard believes the Townsville Fire finally have the confidence to knock down shots following their clinical 94- 59 win over Bendigo at Townsville Stadium.
Offence hasn’t been the Fire’s strong suit in the early rounds, but players joked that the ring felt like a hula hoop as they dominated every quarter to post their highest score of the season.
The rampant Fire made their intentions clear from the opening minute as they raced out to a 7- 0 lead and Bendigo simply couldn’t keep up without injured star Kelsey Griffin ( hip).
Captain Suzy Batkovic ( 18 points, 10 rebounds) led Townsville’s charge with a double- double, but it was a superb scoring spread as 10 players finished with six points or more.
The Fire were also strong from outside, hitting 10 triples, including four from Micaela Cocks ( 16 points), and Brassard said it was nice to see her team playing with confidence at the basket.
“I think with the shooters, it took some time to find their feet,” the coach said.
“We’re running some different stuff offensively and so the shots were probably a little bit different to what we had last year.
“We struggled through the first four rounds and we even went back and cut up every three- point shot we’ve taken to see if we could work out why we weren’t hitting them.
“We knew we had good shooters – that’s why we recruited them – and now the basket must just feel bigger and our shooters are knocking them down.”
It was Townsville’s second big win in a row after also thumping Adelaide by 42 points last weekend, thanks largely to a 29- 10 first quarter.
The Fire had struggled to make things happen in their opening quarters, but after making a few adjustments on the training court, Cocks believes they can maintain those strong starts.
“We’re feeling good and that’s the way you want to feel,” she said.
“It just comes from we’ve really been working on ball movement and getting the ball through hands and I think that creates better shots and then we were able to knock those down.
“I think it’s also in warm- ups we’ve got a lot of energy and we’re getting those good starts. Early on in the season we struggled with our starts and I think that deflated us a little bit. confident in
“It doesn’t make you feel as confident when the other team gets a run on you, but we’re getting those great starts and that’s been continuing even when we rotate players.”
The emphatic win over Bendigo also gave young guns Zitina Aokuso ( 7 points, 6 rebounds) and Haylee Andrews ( 6 points, 1 rebound) the chance to show what they can do off the bench.
Cocks said it was great to see the teenagers embracing their opportunities for more court time.
“You want to have fun when you’re playing basketball, that’s why we play it, and it was just great to see,” she said.
“We love when Haylee Andrews gets out there and has two ‘ and ones’ – that’s awesome. Zitina’s out there getting every rebound, putting back, getting fouled. It’s just a great environment to play in and then getting the win is a bonus.”