Coach urges Fire to refocus
TOWNSVILLE Fire coach Claudia Brassard insists it’s pointless to cry over spilt milk after last week’s heartbreaking home loss left their season hanging by a thread.
The one- point loss, where captain Suzy Batkovic missed two free throws in the dying seconds, has left the Fire ( 11- 9) in a three- way battle for the fourth and final playoff spot with Bendigo ( 11- 9) and Canberra ( 10- 9).
The defending WNBL champions hit the road for the final time this season against second- placed Dandenong on Saturday night, before backing up at Bendigo on Sunday afternoon.
Brassard has spent the early part of the week ensuring her squad avoids wallowing in pity, given they played well for the majority against Sydney, the form team of the league.
“We needed to refocus and get our minds straight on to Dandenong, because it’s a really important weekend for us,” Brassard said.
“She ( Batkovic) is devastated, she made two free throws at scrimmage and shook her head. But she’s a big- time player, she’ll bounce back.
“Certainly there’s things we need to fix from that game, particularly what they did to us at the defensive end and how they played Suzy.
“We’ve got to make better decisions and better passes, hopefully we fix that or we’d expect Dandenong to do the same.”
The Fire has lost seven games by seven points or less this season, which only adds to the frustration.
“We haven’t been great on the road so far, it’s a matter of making sure we’re ready to go,” Brassard said.
“Dandenong really outmuscled us the last time we played them, they were more physical than us but we’re much better at dealing with it now.”
Fire guard Amy Kame said they failed to handle Sydney’s defensive adjustments late in the game.
“It didn’t just come down to those free throws, there was a lot of things they switched up and we didn’t react to that as well as we could have,” she said.
“We know we need to go down and get two wins this weekend.”
TOUGH TO TAKE