Firing up defensive side

TOWNSVILLE Fire coach Claudia Brassard is adamant they can finally take down the Boomers in Melbourne this afternoon after finding their defensive spark.

The Fire produced the most complete performance of their WNBL title defence to dismantle the Spirit 93- 51 at Townsville Stadium on Thursday night.

The Spirit were statistically the best defensive team head- ing into their Townsville clash, but it was the Fire who set the tone to restrict the visitors to the lowest score of the season.

The Fire have struggled with defensive lapses at times and they’re yet to beat the Boomers in two previous meetings this season – going down 78- 70 and 79- 75.

Boomers stars Steph Talbot and Ezi Magbegor will also be back from injury but Brassard said the Fire had no fears about travelling to Melbourne with their defence now locked in.

“I think it’s been building. We know we have it in us and we got sparked by our defence,” Brassard said.

“Our defence fed our offence and we shot the ball. That really helps when we’re knocking down threes and then our post players were hitting.

“We feel we can beat that team ( Melbourne) and we’ve been close every game so if we can just put a better defensive performance against them.

“Mind you, they’ve got some players coming back who weren’t there last time, so that gives them a different look. But if we can play a complete game at both ends of the floor then hopefully we get them.”

Fire captain Suzy Batkovic lauded her side’s defensive pressure against Bendigo, but she said it was imperative they don’t fall back into bad habits in Melbourne.

“It was a slow start out of the blocks for us and hopefully now we’ve turned a corner and you’re starting to see what we’ve been trying to display all season,” Batkovic said.

“We said that at halftime, the reason we were up and the scoreboard was doing what it was doing was because we were working so hard on defence and we were all on the same page.

“I think we were pretty good at the scout as well so that was a huge thing where at times we’ve had big lapses where we’re not focused.

“There’s still obviously a long way to go and plenty of work to do – but it was a really nice step in the right direction.”

The Fire had the luxury of resting players in the fourth quarter against Bendigo which also gave development player and local junior Alex Fowler the chance to make her WNBL debut.