TOWNSVILLE BLAZE TO TOP OF LADDER

THE Townsville Fire rocketed to the top of the WNBL standings with a rousing 101- 78 road victory over Adelaide Lightning at the weekend.

The Fire posted their highest score of the season and clinched their series against Adelaide as captain Suzy Batkovic ( 23 points, 14 rebounds, five assists) and Cayla George ( 16 points, 13 rebounds) each finished with double- doubles.

The stylish victory improved Townsville’s record to 7- 3, which was enough to see them finish the round in first place after Perth took down defending champions Sydney 83- 71 yesterday.

The Fire were sensational across the floor against Adelaide as Micaela Cocks ( 17 points), Mia Murray ( 14), Darcee Garbin ( 12) and Laurin Mincy ( 10) all hit double figures, while Kelly Wilson had nine points and 12 assists.

Cocks was in red- hot form from outside, nailing 5/ 7 three- point attempts, while Murray also hit 3/ 6 as the Fire brought up three consecutive wins for the first time this season.

Consistency has been an issue at times for Townsville, particularly in their opening quarters, but coach Claudia Brassard felt the Fire were finally playing to their potential.

“It’s good that we’ve been able to be consistent and come out and execute the game plan and get the wins,” Brassard said. “Things are coming together for offensively. We’re finding mul- us tiple scorers in every game, which is what we’ve wanted from the start.

“Hopefully those days are past us where we were struggling to score and kind of looking at each other wondering where’s the next point coming from.

“I think everybody’s probably feeling a little bit more comfortable and a little bit more confident as well so it’s great.”

Townsville led 28- 17 at quartertime before Adelaide came out with a 10- 0 run to start the second term and get back within a point.

It was only a minor hiccup as the Fire lifted to win the quarter 25- 16 and dominate the rest of the contest and Brassard was proud of the way they snuffed out Adelaide’s charge.

“They had two bench players come on and hit a couple of big shots and they went on that 10- 0 run,” she said.

“I probably waited one threepoint shot too long before I called my time out. I didn’t think they’d be that hot, but we stopped their run and then we came back out and finished the game.

“It’s just a little bit of character, making sure that we were able to maintain that lead.”

The Fire are back in action against second- placed Melbourne in Townsville on Thursday night before a nine- day road trip which will see them take on Perth, Dandenong, and Sydney.

Perth, Dandenong and Sydney are the only teams to beat Townsville so far this season and Brassard said it was vital they capitalise on their winning momentum.

“I think starting this week the job gets a little bit harder for us,” she said.

“We’ll see what we can do there.”