In- form Capitals to pose genuine test
TOWNSVILLE Fire coach Claudia Brassard is on high alert for a Canberra Capitals outfit that looms as a serious threat to their minor premiership ambitions.
The Fire must beat Canberra in the nation’s capital tomorrow night to keep touch with ladder leaders Perth, who lead the second- placed Fire by three wins, but recent form suggests the Capitals will be tough to crack.
Winning their past three games against Dandenong, Bendigo and Adelaide, the Capitals are playing better basketball than what their second- last placing on the WNBL table suggests.
They scored a thrilling 88- 87 home win against Adelaide last weekend, and that was without star point guard Natalie Hurst, with 19- year- old talent Maddison Rocci filling Hurst’s role in a remarkable breakout performance.
Hurst will be available tomorrow night after recovering from an ear infection, but Rocci’s display proved that Canberra have the depth to trouble the league’s more fancied teams, including Townsville.
“We don’t think it’s an easy game, I guess Canberra’s sort of turned it around,” Brassard said.
“While they have lost 13 games, they never got blown out like some of the other teams.
“They’re always in games, and I think they’re a little bit unlucky to lose a few of those, so we have to make sure we don’t take them lightly.”
The Fire have beaten the Capitals twice already, the first win coming with a 76- 65 home victory in Round 2, before beating Canberra away 83- 68.
“Back then we rolled over them in the second half in both of those games, so I think that’s going to be a factor again,” Brassard said.
“We’ll make sure we play a good second half, and they’ve struggled with their third quarters, but they have a lot of scorers.
“So we’re making sure we individually contain our own player and not let anybody get off.
“Every game is dangerous, and we want to make sure we’re heading into finals feeling good about ourselves and confident.
“We’ve been talking about our slow starts the last couple of games — we haven’t been able to fix it — so that’s going to be a focus for us.”
The Fire can guarantee a finals berth with a win tomorrow night, and then it’s a two- day turnaround to Saturday night’s home game against Bendigo.
Sealing a finals berth will be a major feat for the Fire , but for Brassard the goal is at least a top- two finish.
“Perth get one more win and they can lock that ( top spot) away, but for us we’re chasing one or two so we can get that home court advantage,” she said.
“So it’s making sure we don’t let that opportunity go by.”