By Marcus Uhe
Southside Flyers marked a return to the basketball courts after an international break in the Women’s National Basketball League with a tight three-point win over the Sydney Flames on Sunday.
The steady head of veteran point guard Leilani Mitchell was critical down the stretch, nailing a three and assisting on a Mercedes Russell layup in a pick-and-roll in the final minute, before nailing a free throw to push the lead to three points ahead of the game’s final possession.
She then pressured Flames guard Paige Bradley the length of the court as she attemped the final shot of the game, resulting in a miss, the Flyers sneaking home 81-78.
With the scores tied on 62 at the beginning of the final quarter, the Sydney crowd was treated to a thrilling 10 minutes of basketball that saw five lead changes in a seesawing battle.
With reigning league MVP Cayla George, Sydney looked likely to pull-away on multiple occasions but the Flyers managed to find an answer time-and-again.
A savvy Nyadiew Puoch converted on a Mitchell missed layup with just over four minutes to go to secure a one point lead at 75-74, an advantage the visitors never relinquished.
Mitchell assisted Rocci on a wide-open corner three after collapsing the defence on a drive to the basket to push the lead to four, before a scoreless near-two minutes heightened the tension even further.
Sydney cut the lead to two with 1.16 remaining as pressure got the games stars, as Mitchell missed a three and George turned the ball over in the half-court.
Cheryl Chambers called a timeout with 37 second remaining, resulting in the perfectly executed Mitchell-Russell pick-and-roll with two seconds remaining on the shot-clock.
Sydney managed to score on the next play, before intentionally fouling Mitchell, where she converted that critical free-throw.
The match was an arm-wrestle for almost the duration of the game, a 10-point lead to the Flyers in the second quarter the biggest lead of the match at any stage.
Southside shot a superior percentage in all three categories, most notably 10 per cent better in three-point shooting, while 16 bench points to seven proved telling.
Sydney star George was kept to just 14 points in 37 minutes while Russell scored 18 to lead Southside in scoring.
Mitchell and Lauren Jackson added 15 each for Southside.
Southside sits second with two games to play in the WNBL season but must win its remaining matches to secure a finals birth, with Bendigo, Melbourne and Sydney close behind on winning percentage.
The Flyers will play Townsville on Wednesday night in a rescheduled clash after the first was postponed due to a late-January cyclone, before closing the regular season on Saturday against Adelaide.
