Brassard hails cool Fire
Coach says team reacted well under pressure in grand finals opener
TOWNSVILLE Fire coach Claudia Brassard has lauded her side’s composure after holding out the Liz Cambageinspired Melbourne Boomers 69- 64 in game one of the WNBL grand final series.
The showdown between the league’s best defensive teams lived up to expectations with 11 lead changes in a fast- paced, highly physical contest at the sold out Townsville Stadium.
Melbourne controlled the paint through star centre Cambage ( 26 points, 13 rebounds, 4 blocks), but import Sydney Wiese ( 14 points) stole the show with some clutch shooting to spark Townsville’s win.
Both teams struggled to find their offensive rhythm at times – with a 10- 10 stalemate in the second quarter – but the Fire found a way to take control in the critical moments.
After falling behind 6- 0 early, Mikhaela Donnelly scored on the stroke of quarter- time to give the Fire a onepoint edge while Darcee Garbin nailed a huge buzzerbeater to close the third term.
Wiese and Cayla George also hit momentum- changing triples late in the game and Brassard believed the way the Fire handled those pressure situations made the difference.
“There’s always lots of pressure. I know I was really nervous and I’m sure everybody on the team was just by the way we started the game,” Brassard said.
“We speak a lot about finishing out quarters and finishing possessions and I think we did that really well.
“I guess we have a lot of experience so we can draw on a few of those players to come out and get it done for us.
“Offensively, we probably got bogged down quite a bit … ( but) finals is always a bit of a defensive grind and that’s pretty much what won that game.
“It’s nice to get that out of the way, and while it wasn’t pretty, it’s still a win.”
George admitted it wasn’t the Fire’s most polished performance, but the two- time WNBL champion was ecstatic to be just one game away from bringing the trophy back.
“It was very erratic at times from both teams,” George said.
“There were moments, probably more often than we’d like to say, that we probably needed to slow down, but it was finals basketball and we had to grind it out.
“I’m just honestly stoked that we came away with the win. It has been a really big build- up. I don’t think we’ve had this much time to prepare for a game all season.
“I’m just glad that game one’s done and dusted but by no means do we feel that this is over.”
The best- of- three grand final series now heads to Melbourne for game two on Thursday night and George was confident the Fire can get the job done again on the Boomers’ home floor.
“We’ve won down there before so we’ve just go to focus on what we need to do,” she said.
“We’ve got the game plan in place and we’ve just got to execute.”