By Marcus Uhe
A Southside Flyers loss to ladder-leading Townsville Fire in the final WNBL game of the season has confirmed an all-Melbourne semi finals match-up with the Melbourne Boomers.
The Fire jumped to a 13-point lead at the end of the first quarter and maintained their ascendancy throughout at the State Basketball Centre to runaway 22-point winners 83-61.
Townsville brought the heat on both ends of the floor from the get-go, opening the game on a 14-4 run that forced a timeout from Flyers coach Cheryl Chambers.
On offence they used both their speed and long range shooting to provide multiple scoring threats for the Flyers to cover, while on the other end it was Abby Bishop playing somewhat of a lone hand for the home side, scoring six of their 14 points in the opening term.
A Townsville layup at the first quarter buzzer, and a three-pointer to open the second, saw the margin balloon to 16.
The margin grew to 19 on the back of a 10-4 opening to the second quarter in the Fire’s favour, as their swarming defence forced turnovers and missed shots from Southside.
The Flyers began to find their range from distance and a Rocci layup off a turnover cut the lead to 10 at the six minute mark.
But the lack of rim protection down low meant the Fire could find baskets in the lane with consistent and relative ease and keep Southside at arms length.
The margin never fell below 10 points in the second half as Townsville continued to pile on the pain.
44 points in the paint to 22 was a huge indicator of their dominance, as was their 63 per cent field goal accuracy, nearly doubling their opponents who could only manage 32 per cent.
Kayla Thornton led the team in points (14) and assists (five) but finished a -18 overall on the box score.
Their best-of-three semi finals series against Melbourne begins on Wednesday night.
Southside defeated Melbourne twice in the regular season by a double-figure margin.
Townsville will tackle Perth in the other semi finals series.
Game 1: Wednesday 8 March, 7.30pm, State Basketball Centre
Game 2: Saturday 11 March, 7.30pm, Melbourne Sports Stadium
Game 3 (if required): Wednesday 15 March, 7.30pm, State Basketball Centre
