A rough ride to victory
‘Tough’ Fire withstand Southside heat at home
THE unbeaten Townsville Fire continued their incredible start to the season on Wednesday night, grounding the Southside Flyers with a suffocating 86-71 victory.
The win puts the Fire second on the WNBL ladder as one of only two undefeated teams, the other being the Kelsey Griffin-led Bendigo Spirit.
Playing in front of a boisterous midweek home crowd, the Fire rushed out to a 10-point lead at quarter-time then endured a bruising fight to the end as the Flyers got physical on the floor.
Australian basketball superstar Lauren Jackson was fouled out of the game late in the fourth quarter after committing an unsportsmanlike foul against Karlie Samuelson.
That was the culmination of 37 minutes of frustration for Jackson and the visitors, who ramped up their physicality in the second half with a number of rough bumps and knocks that had the crowd dismayed.
Steph Reid, Mikaela Ruef, Lauren Nicholson and Samuelson were all floored at various points in the match as the firey Flyers lowered their shoulders and went into every collision with extra zest.
After the game, Fire coach Shannon Seebohm publicly downplayed the nature of the physicality, suggesting it was the Flyers’ attempt to spark a comeback any way they could.
“It’s just part of the game. They’re down (on the scoreboard), they’re trying to do something to spark either something from their teammates or maybe they’re getting frustrated,” Seebohm said. “We don’t need to get caught up in that, we just need to play well and that’s what we did.”
Fire captain Nicholson, who was knocked down by a big bump from Abby Bishop among other fouls, said the team wasn’t surprised by the fierce tactics.
“They’re a tough side and they’re going to foul hard,” Nicholson said.
“They were down by a few points and had to make a change in the game, and I guess that was their way of doing that.”
Seebohm said he was concerned by the team’s form at training earlier in the week, but the players all stepped up to the challenge.
“I thought we were tough. I kind of challenged them and to be honest, I was a bit worried because yesterday’s training and shoot around this morning we were a little bit lethargic and probably not as focused as I would have liked us to be going into the game,” he said.
“So I challenged the girls with that and you know, all I wanted to see them do today was come out and be tough and make things hard, and I think we did a really good job of that.”