WNBL: Sydney Uni Flames beat Melbourne Boomers 65-56
LIZ Cambage and Jen Hamson were the two biggest on the court but it was one of the fastest and youngest who lead the Sydney Uni Flames to a 65-56 win over the Melbourne Boomers.
Women's sport
Don't miss out on the headlines from Women's sport. Followed categories will be added to My News.
LIZ Cambage and Jen Hamson were the two biggest on the court on Friday night but it was one of the fastest and youngest who lead the Sydney Uni Flames to a 65-56 win over WNBL leaders, the Melbourne Boomers.
While Hamson and her defensive cohorts worked quietly to restrict Cambage — including keeping the 203cm star scoreless in the first period — American import Asia Taylor dazzled with her speed and precision and young gun Alex Wilson excelled under pressure.
Taylor ended the match with a game-high 27 points and 15 rebounds while Wilson came off with 14 points, which included three crucial three pointers.
The win over the Boomers and fellow pre-season favourites, Townsville Fire, last round has established the defending WNBL champions as the new early season favourites for the 2017/18 crown.
But there were downsides to the match, including the Flames being outscored 19-14 in the third period after a first half injury to star guard Katie Rae Ebzery who left the court in obvious pain with a suspected sprained left ankle.
“You still have to be happy with that one,” said coach Cheryl Chambers. “You have to love Asia. She takes the whole game on her back when needed and Alex was great as well. We always knew it would take time to adjust just after Katie came off but they rode out the storm.”
Cambage ended the game with 19 points and seven rebounds, the only Melbourne player to score in the double digits.
The Flames made a brilliant start to the round four match, incredibly keeping Cambage scoreless for the entire first period and contributing just three rebounds to her teams scoresheet.
It was an impressive performance by Hamson and the Flames defensive unit against a player who is averaging 23 points and 13 rebounds a game and who last round scored 23 points and 22 rebounds in a single match against Perth Lynx.
The Melbourne star’s first points of the game came in the second period off two free throws with Cambage clearly frustrated at the attention received from a fired-up Flames defence.
The Flames lead by as much as 17 in the first half but left the court at halftime with a 32-21 lead.
As Cambage found her feet and the Flames lost their rhythm, the Boomers came back within three of their hosts in the third period.
But the Flames rallied in the final period to tough out the win against their Melbourne rivals.
The match marked the 100th WNBL game appearance of both Hayley Moffat and Shanae Greaves.
Moffatt suffered a season-ending knee injury in 2016/17 but is now back to full fitness.
Greaves, who started her career with the Boomers, played her first season with the Flames in 2016/17 and was part of their premiership winning team.
The Flames have a tough few days ahead, flying to Melbourne on Saturday to take on Dandenong in their second game of the round before hosting Canberra next Thursday at the start of round five.