Fire out to finish Flames
TOWNSVILLE Fire star Cayla George believes their incredible start to the WNBL semi- finals will count for nothing if they can’t finish the job in Sydney to secure a grand final berth.
The Fire have the momentum in the best- of- three series after dominating the Flames 78- 49 at Townsville Stadium on Thursday night with a relentless defensive effort.
It was an ominous sign from the star- studded Townsville side, which missed the grand final for the first time in five years last season after a poor showing against Sydney in the semi- finals.
The Flames will have the home court advantage in this afternoon’s return clash and George insisted the Fire weren’t getting too caught up in the excitement of one strong performance.
“It definitely wasn’t expected to have a win like that, but I guess that’s nothing if we don’t get at least one of the next games,” George said.
“We’ve just got to almost forget about that win, but remember how we played and how aggressive we were and come into this game with that same intention.
“Sydney are going to be a lot better than what they were and obviously on their home court as well, but we really have to focus because that game will mean nothing unless we finish the job.
“I expect them to come out pretty hard. They won’t take the next game lightly at all. They’ll try to combat our aggressiveness with their own so we’ve just really got to match them.”
The Fire haven’t always shown that aggression during an inconsistent season and their last trip to Sydney which was just a week ago saw them on the receiving end of a 107- 81 thrashing.
They were again slow out of the blocks on Thursday night as they trailed 14- 6 early before shaking off that nervous start to control the rest of the contest.
George, who has played two seasons in Townsville for two championships, was confident the Fire had the experience and the drive to match Sydney’s intensity for the rest of the series.
“We’re more than capable ( but) we’ve been pretty inconsistent this year and we’ve shown patches and glimpses of what we can do,” she said.
“I guess the first few minutes ( of the first semi- final) we were probably running out a bit of that nervous energy, but for me nerves mean I care and I’m ready to go.
“Hopefully now that it is finals time, people do step up and we can maintain this consistency throughout the finals as we continue to go through.
“I feel like we’ve got a scoring team. We’ve got plenty of people who can step up and take the scoring brunt and I look forward to the challenge of playing in Sydney.” BEN Simmons ( left) is within re reach of becoming an NBA AllStar in his rookie season after the first voting stage, but he needs Australia’s help to create history.
Simmons has amassed 210,085 votes after the First Returns in the Eastern Conference, placing him in fourth position out of Eastern C Conference guards.
The Melbourne- born Philadelphia sensation has to finish in the top two to give