Southside stars put Lynx to the sword

SOUTHSIDE have their mojo back while Perth’s WNBL season is all but over.

In a lopsided match-up in Cairns last night, the contest between the championship hopeful Flyers and lowly Lynx went to script for much of the four quarters.

In a two horse race, the Flyers started $1.02 favourites with Ladbrokes while Perth were the $13 outsider to upset the Melbourne-based team.

Despite those odds from the bookmakers, the ladies in red and black hit five of their first eight shots, gaining an early advantage.

From there on, the Cheryl Chambers-coached Flyers got going quickly, taking a doubledigit lead into the first change.

They would not surrender that lead again and just kept extending it as the evening p r o g r e s s e d , propelled by their star-studded and experienced line-up.

Southside bounced back impressively from their Monday night defeat, belting Perth 102-62.

Towering centre Elizabeth Cambage (pictured) was crucial to everything the championship fancies did, cleaning up around the glass as well as forcing almost all five Perth defenders to take notice of what she was doing on the offensive end. The WNBA star led the game in points (23) and rebounds (8) in a commanding display.

Flyers point guard Leilani Mitchell caught fire in the second term, draining three triples in quick time. Mitchell’s fifth long-range effort midway through the third stanza pushed the Flyers to double Perth’s score – up by 37 points at the time. Mitchell finished with 20 points and was just as instrumental as Cambage.

“We were not happy with the way we performed on Monday,” Mitchell said.

“Tonight, most important was defence and we were able to slow down Perth.”

The defeat drops the WA club to 1-6 on the season, while the Flyers improved to 5-2.