WNBL: How the Townsville Fire will contain red-hot former captain Sami Whitcomb

Australian Opals guard Sami Whitcomb will step into the Fire Pit on Saturday night for the first time since Townsville’s shock semi-final defeat to Perth last season. Read what she can expect to find.

Sami Whitcomb of the Spirit drives to the basket during the round three WNBL match between Sydney Flames and Bendigo Spirit at Quay Centre, on November 13, 2024, in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

Australian Opals guard Sami Whitcomb will step into the Fire Pit on Saturday night for the first time since Townsville’s shock semi-final defeat to Perth last season.

Townsville’s captain of the 2023/24 season did not have the year she was hoping for in North Queensland, struggling to find the form she has since rediscovered in Bendigo.

Whitcomb has enjoyed a dream start to her time in regional Victoria, scoring a league-leading 103 points through the Spirit’s perfect 4-0 start to the season.

Although she was named in the All WNBL Second Team, Whitcomb set career-lows for her shooting percentages in 2023/24 – scoring just 39.2 from the field and a shocking 29.3 from beyond the arc.

Compare it to this season when Whitcomb is making more than half of her shot attempts (53.7 per cent) while draining 51.1 per cent of her three-pointers – of which there have been a league-leading 19.

Shannon Seebohm and Sami Whitcomb at the Fire's annual awards night. Picture: Townsville Fire.

Townsville coach Shannon Seebohm said he was pleased to see his former skipper doing so well as the Fire prepare to host Whitcomb and the Spirit.

“I’m really happy for her. She was here last year, obviously, and had a bit of a tough year,” Seebohm said.

“She had a child during the season that wasn’t here in Townsville and all those things, so it was probably a very emotionally draining year for her and to see her come out and start the season like this is awesome.

“I think she’s in a good place and she’s obviously happy on and off the court. She’s got her family there with her, so to see her start like that is great but our job’s going to be to try and really slow that down.

“Having her here (last season), hopefully we’ve got a little bit of knowledge on what she does. But as you know with great players, they’re hard to stop so our job’s going to be to try to contain her as best we can and make some of those shots that she’s been getting a little bit tougher.”

The Fire take on Bendigo at the Townsville Entertainment and Convention Centre on Saturday night, tip-off is at 7.30pm AEST.

Originally published as WNBL: How the Townsville Fire will contain red-hot former captain Sami Whitcomb