FIRE FINDING FOCUS
TOWNSVILLE Fire captain Suzy Batkovic has urged her teammates to focus on their execution as they look to get their WNBL road trip back on track against Dandenong tomorrow night.
The Fire have already dropped the first game of their eight- day road stretch with Sunday’s 84- 79 loss to Perth, which also saw the Lynx take the series 2- 0.
Townsville were in the contest right up until the final minute, but they were ultimately let down by some fundamentals with 19 turnovers and hitting just 11/ 18 from the free throw line.
Batkovic said she had been replaying the loss over in her head, but she said it was crucial that the Fire refocus now as they attempt to keep another series alive against Dandenong.
“Coming so close, I find it really frustrating knowing we’ve got depth and a great team to win those games,” Batkovic said.
“There was some improvement ( from their Round 5 loss to Perth). We tried some different things defensively and those worked when we were running them, but every loss is disappointing.
“Probably the most disappointing aspect was we had such high turnovers and so many little things that we could have done better to execute and get the win.
“We’ve strung some good wins together so to then go down by a few points was extremely disappointing, but we don’t have time to drop our heads.
“Part of the condensed season is we’ve got to keep moving and keep adjusting. That’s all that you can do and make sure you’re ready to go.”
Dandenong’s form has been patchy this season, having lost four of their past five, including a 70- 49 defeat to Adelaide last Saturday.
But the Rangers have shown they match up well against the Fire after blowing them off the court with an 86- 69 victory in Round 3, which makes tomorrow’s clash a must- win for Townsville.
Dandenong have since lost Opals forward Sara Blicavs to a seasonending knee injury and Batkovic was confident the Fire had the depth to contain them as long as they can execute their game plan.
“We can’t take them lightly, but with the depth that we have we should be humming pretty well by now and getting wins on the board,” the skipper said.
“They’re a bit of a different team to Perth, but we’ve started focusing on Dandenong’s structures and how to shut that down and what we need to do to make sure we’re executing.”
The Fire will be on the road until Saturday when they face defending champions Sydney.
Players enjoyed a day off yesterday and Batkovic said it was a good chance to clear their heads before playing the Rangers.
“At the end of the day, we’re humans, not robots. We all have our moments when we struggle,” Batkovic said.
“Everybody got out and about from the hotel, which is always a good little refresher. We got knocked down ( against Perth) and now we’ve got to get back up.”