Perth Lynx on brink of WNBL finals elimination

The Perth Lynx find themselves on the brink of elimination from the WNBL playoffs.

Perth’s Courtney Williams, left, challenges Boomers star Rebecca Cole.

Perth Lynx find themselves on the brink of elimination from the WNBL playoffs after being thumped by 16 points at the hands of the Melbourne Boomers. The top-ranked Lynx crashed to a 92-76 loss in Melbourne on Wednesday night and must defend their home-court advantage in Perth tonight to stay alive in the best-of-three semi-final series.

Making their first finals appearance in four years, Melbourne marked the occasion with superior passing, accurate shooting and playing with more energy on defence than their higher-ranked opponents.

With dominant centre Liz Cambage in foul trouble, Melbourne back-ups Louella Tomlinson and Ashleigh Grant impressed coach Guy Molloy with their efforts under the basket in the heat of finals pressure. “It turned out to be a wonderful positive for us,” Molloy said after the match. “We have been a little bit thin with how we have been rotating our front line so what a great confidence boost for them.”

Superior ball movement from the Boomers saw them rack up 27 assists to Perth’s 10 with guards Brittany Smart, Maddie Garrick and Rebecca Cole doing the damage from long range.

“Pleasingly, we shot great from the three-point line, so if that’s something we can do consistently well through finals then we are definitely a force,” Molloy said.

Cole missed the last two games with a knee complaint but fired off the bench with 21 points as the Boomers outscored Perth 32-15 in bench points. “We can’t get too carried away as it is a finals series, but I think it gives the group a lot of positivity and encouragement,” Cole said.

“We just need to keep going hard in game two and go get that next ‘W’ in Perth.”

Perth coach Andy Stewart was extremely disappointed with his team’s performance after the Boomers nailed 12 three-pointers and made 50 per cent of their field goals compared to Perth’s 35 per cent. “I think they shot the ball well but I think we gave them too many open looks as well,” Stewart said.

“Our shot selection for most of the night was pretty poor and we weren’t moving the ball like we have done all year.”

“We were going solo time-and-time-again and we are not going to win games doing that.” The new away-home-home semi-final format meant that Perth, after matches in Canberra and Townsville to close the regular season, backed up for their third away game in six nights in the first semi-final.

But Stewart felt a lack of execution was the bigger factor in the result rather than fatigue.

The Lynx now play out the rest of the series in Perth where they have won 10 straight games, their only home defeat coming in the opening round of the season against reigning champions Sydney Uni.

AAP