Townsville Fire hang tough against Boomers to lead grand final series

Townsville coach Claudia Brassard credited her team’s defensive play in the Fire’s game one victory in the WNBL grand final.

Fire captain Suzy Batkovic, right, became the first Townsville player to surpass 3000 points during game one of the WNBL grand final. Picture: Getty Images

Townsville coach Claudia Brassard credited her team’s defensive play and experience as the keys to the Fire’s game one victory in the WNBL grand final series on Saturday.

Townsville overcame a nervous start to grind out a 69-64 win over the Melbourne Boomers and take a big step towards delivering a third championship in the past four seasons for the North Queensland franchise.

“It’s nice to get that out of the way and while it wasn’t pretty, it’s still a win and we are one up,” Brassard said.

“Offensively, we probably got bogged down quite a bit but Melbourne were the best defensive team in the competition and they showed that here.”

But the Fire matched Melbourne’s intensity in defence and while Liz Cambage (26 points, 13 rebounds, four blocks) proved too tough to stop, they restricted the visitors to 13 per cent shooting (3-of-23) from three-point range.

“Our threes didn’t drop, we just had a miserable percentage,” Melbourne coach Guy Molloy said after the loss.

“We make two or three more of those shots and turn it into a mediocre percentage, the game could have been ours.

“We needed to knock down our shots and we just didn’t.”

Captain Suzy Batkovic became the first Townsville player to surpass 3000 points as she finished her 150th game for the club with 16 points and 15 rebounds.

“I’m really proud of my girls at the defensive end,” Batkovic said after taking a 1-0 series lead.

“There was a time that we couldn’t convert but we did such a solid job on defence and that kept us in the game when things were tough.”

The big-game experience of Batkovic, guard Kelly Wilson and centre Cayla ­George proved invaluable for the Fire.

“They have all been there before, they know what finals are like and I think down the stretch we are going to rely on them,” Brassard said.

“We have a lot of experience and we can draw on a few of those players to come out and get it done for us, which is nice.”

Cambage expects her side to turn around their shooting woes in game two on Thursday night as they attempt to set up a deciding game three back in Townsville on Sunday. “Hopefully they got a lot of their nerves out tonight and they’ll be pumped to go and hit those shots on our home court,” she said.

AAP