Fire focus on home clash
TOWNSVILLE Fire coach Shannon Seebohm says he hasn’t yet looked at the scout for Sunday’s road clash with reigning WNBL champions Canberra as they focus all their energy on protecting their home floor against Adelaide tonight.
The Fire are set for a double-header against last season’s grand finalists this weekend, starting with the Lightning at Townsville Stadium before travelling to Canberra to face the Capitals.
It’s an intriguing early season test for the Fire, who are coming off an 81-72 opening round loss to Southside without star centre Abby Bishop, who is expected to return from a concussion tonight.
The Capitals have quickly shown themselves as the team to beat again this season as they fought back from 12 points down just before halftime to post a 90-83 win over Adelaide last weekend.
But the Lightning have also looked strong despite that loss after beating the Sydney Flames 89-79 and Seebohm said it was vital that the Fire didn’t think too far ahead to the Capitals game.
“To be honest, I haven’t even put any time into Canberra. It’s all focused on Adelaide,” he said.
“We want to defend our home court as best we can. I’m not going to look forward to that second game of the weekend until this one’s done.
“I’ve said this to the girls – it’s not so much about winning and losing for us, it’s about how we’re playing and what level we’re playing at.
“I think to be able to play the two teams that were in the final last year is a great measuring stick and I’m really excited to see how we bounce back from probably a sub-par game last weekend.”
The Fire were left disappointed with their defence in the opening round as Southside’s starting five all scored in double figures with WNBA point guard Leilani Mitchell (21 points) leading the way.
Fire vice-captain Tess Madgen was one of the standouts in a beaten side with 17 points and she was confident Townsville would be better for the run heading into their first home game of the season.
“We’re going to be competitive with any team. They (Southside) are a star-studded line-up and we had chances to win the game,” Madgen said.
“We just really need to focus a bit more on the defensive end and look to push the ball out of that and get some easy baskets.
“It’s our first game (at home tonight) so we want to come out and really show how we play and have a brand of basketball that the Townsville community’s proud of.”
Seebohm said he’d been encouraged by the Fire’s response on the training court this week after challenging his players to improve on their defensive efforts against Southside.
“I think for us it was just a bit of an eye-opener and maybe we’re now aware of the level that we have to be able to play at to compete in the league,” he said.
Tonight’s game at Townsville Stadium starts at 7pm.