SEQ
Perth
Dandy
Boomers
spirit
Fire

all with the Ws this weekend

Boomers by 50+

Good looking round of games. The non-Adelaide/Canberra games all could be close contests.

Tonight's odds:

Stars $1.45, Flames $2.63. Margin 4.5 points.
Sydney not without a real chance IMO. I'm tempted.

Lynx $1.62, Spirit $2.21. Margin 2.5 points.
I see this one as a 50/50 contest and only because Perth has home court advantage. I don't see anyone on this Lynx team who can stop Griffin. Tomlinson will have her hands full too and absolutely must stay out of foul trouble tonight. Perth will want to push the tempo and have been good at doing so in the games I've seen.
Looking forward to this one.

Whitcomb was outstanding last week

Did anyone catch Basket Case Episode 4? It was the best episode so far. Some interesting summations and predictions for this round along with good interviews and Helen's always good value. In a sombre and sympathetic discussion of the Caps, Carol comes out with '. . . and a living legend eyeballs the end ...', which I thought was pretty succinct and a bit gut-wrenching actually.

Stars in to $1.35, Flames $3.00 now.
Wonder if someone is out for the Flames, or if it's just a lot of money today for SEQ.

it will be a good game

Any WNBL teams looking for a world class point guard should give Sammy Prahalis a call.

I'm reliably informed that 'T' won't be playing for Sydney (HSC) but Cox is 'near enough' to get some minutes. Hard road back for her.

oh yes.

Montgomery could have come at a better time - a month ago ;)
Very sad about Zavecz though. Was on her way to becoming a very useful player when the injuries started.

Last I heard from LJ, which was after the recent knee setback, she was still hopeful of returning to action a few weeks from now. I take all LJ health predictions with a bag of pool salt though.


Huge first quarter by the Flames - 32 points - to lead SEQ by 7 at the first break. Alex Wilson enjoying her promotion to the starting lineup.
Go Sydney!

Flames getting hammered on the boards

Well the Flames took SEQ all the way to OT, but looks like 40 minutes was all they had in them. Still a tremendous effort, minus Tupaea and also a head coach from what I hear. I've got a lot of time for what they're doing in Sydney.

Over here, the Lynx played like garbage. Not actually sure how it was still a close game down the stretch - we didn't deserve it to be. I guess Bendigo going 3/19 from outside is largely to thank. The attack mode we had last game was lacking. Lavey & Laney can hold their heads high, the rest not so much.
Entertaining meltdown by coach Pritchard anyway :p
Richards & Griffin were good without dominating us (Lynx actually won the battle of the boards), but for mine it was Kelly Wilson that was the difference. Quality all-round game for the full 40 minutes.

Back to the drawing board for Perth. Sami drew a lot of attention and we failed to capitalise elsewhere.

So my longshot on the Flames fell just short, but I still came out ahead thanks to the Spirit.

"Montgomery could have come at a better time - a month ago ;)
Very sad about Zavecz though. Was on her way to becoming a very useful player when the injuries started."

Couldn't agree more on both fronts! Zavecz seemed like the ultimate team player, not really fussed by stats just doing whatever her team needed. Also a great interview, a very positive personality who I'm sure will find another challenge without too much fuss.

Edmondson shot 1 of 13, Terrible!
There has been some really good and really poor shooting stats this year.

That must have been some game up at Logan. Great for the Stars and their fans to celebrate. Rachel Jarry was amazing, a real captains display. Lots of good numbers and performances for the home team. The rebounding of Ibekwe and Lewis combined was only a few less than the Flames total. With all that extra possession the Stars had, it seems the Flames were kept in it by indifferent outside shooting from SEQ. Both teams failed to ice the game with opportunities late in the 4th.

According to Sportsbet, Bendigo are so confident of beating Adelaide that they're sending the Braves over there instead of the Spirit :p
... and the Braves are still at $1.13 to Adelaide's $5.40, with the margin set at 11.5

Saying that it's an understatement that Ruef will have her hands full with Richards & Griffin, is itself an understatement.

Adelaide get the win!

Led from start to finish, out-rebounded the Spirit 44-34, got Griffin & Richards fouled out..., Spirit got close but they held on and pushed back to win 76-68.
Ruef & Mitchell got some help this time. No passengers in the starting 5. Great effort.

I thought the Lynx would have a cruisey time next weekend when we visit Adelaide but forget that now.
:(

would anyone else look to more help for griffin & Richards would you still keep joy burke

She seems like she should be a serviceable backup, but 2 rebounds in 19 min today and 3 in 16 min vs Perth is not the greatest return for someone her height is it.

Not usually, no. But not all imports are brought in to be stars either. She was not a college star so I never got the impression that she was brought in to be an impact-type import. (let's face it - it would take someone pretty damn good to kick Richards out of the starting 5 spot)

"Do you get an import to be a serviceable back up?"

If they fill a hole in your roster, yes.

A rare Monday night game to finish the round
Melbourne Boomers $4.25, Townsville Fire $1.20

This one will be live streamed on YouTube at 7:30pm EDT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQCGkxIs-pk

i think the odds say it all i dont think this could be close at all

Yeah I'm sure the Fire will drop a game or two but I don't see it being this one either.
Melbourne have some nice talent but they're not deep, and more to the point they're really not very big, so I expect them to struggle to contain Suzy & Cayla just as the Rangers did. They'll need to be hitting at a good clip from outside to give themselves any chance.

Well sportsfan and Luuuc it would have to be one of the best game I've seen the Boomers play since changing their name from Bulleen to Melbourne. And in front of a crowd.

Late work day for me so I didn't get to tune in, and I only just caught the score.
Very impressed.
Not that I didn't think the Boomers had it in them, but if you had told me that Thompson would play just 5 minutes for 1 rebound, they would turn the ball over 19 times, and Suzy would go off for 32 & 12, then I would have wondered just how big the Fire's margin was.

Boomers won the boards 40-27. Super effort!

I bet Garbin is happy with her decision to leave Perth & head to Tville. Another 6 minutes of court time for Garbin last night! She'll go backwards at a rate of knots playing for Lucas. I bet Thompson didn't know that the Boomers were going to recruit Garrick & Kunek before she signed on for another 3 years! Her court time in last night's game back to 5 minutes.

Thompson needs to put a bit of effort into defending. Her teammates can only cover for her for so long, and now there are some other options she has to earn her minutes.

Yeah, disappointing about Garbin from a Perth POV.
There are so few west aussies in the WNBL as it is, it's a pity for us home fans when they end up at other teams.
I can understand why she might have wanted to head elsewhere though, if she had aspirations of taking her game to a higher level. Just not sure SEQ was the ideal choice. Maybe she'll do a Burton and head back again anyway.

I'm a Garbin fan and I don't think she was treated correctly by the Waves. At the end of the day I'm happy to see her wherever is best for her, even if that's not here in Perth. I don't know anything about the timing of her decision to move vs. the timing of the new ownership & personnel of the Lynx. If she committed on the assumption that it would just be another year of the Waves again then I don't fault her at all for leaving.

Melbourne are working hard off the court. Sponsor engagement is up, fan engagement is up, active social media. Lots of behind the scenes support work.

Would be nice to see BA get their act together and announce their TV deal. Or tell the clubs that it has failed at the only task their had. Where is the TV deal. Also BA try promoting the game the clubs need need active attending fans not shit live streaming.

Great win by the Melbourne Boomers against Townsville. Suzy was a beast with 32 pts but the Boomwrs had 6 players in double figures. Great team defensive effort plus I think the Boomers won the boards which is always tough to do against Suzy and Cayla. Chris Lucas will be a bit grumpy this week