THE PERTH Lynx will kick off round five action of the WNBL season against the Townsville Fire on Wednesday night as they seek redemption from the narrow four-point loss they suffered in Round Two. The Lynx have since won three consecutive games and sit second on the WNBL table, the Fire close behind in third place. 

In their last outing it was Perth who shot the lights out, going at 50 per cent from downtown, but Townsville severely outrebounded the home side en route to 19 second chance points and a whopping 56 points in the paint. Alicia Froling controlled the boards, collecting 10 to go with her 25 points, but the Fire had the four leading rebounders in that game, roping in 48 to the Lynx’s 29. In the two games following the Round Two defeat the Lynx outrebounded opponents by a combined +16 and will hope to have turned a corner in that aspect of the game. 

Perth has struggled at the free throw line all season, having not shot over 71 per cent yet through four games. From three-point range, however, the Lynx started the year en fuego, but have made just 30 per cent, 30 per cent and 29 per cent of their attempts from beyond the arc in their three most recent games. They will hope to achieve the success from long range that they did last time out against the Fire, where Miela Sowah shot 4-7, Anneli Maley nailed three of her five attempts and Alex Wilson and Steph Gorman both connected on 2-4 from distance. 

For Townsville, they enter the mid-week clash having dropped two of their last three games but were victorious on Saturday against the Lightning where they kept their opponents to seven second half points in an outrageous defensive effort. That tenacity on the defensive side of the ball will be crucial in keeping Perth’s three-point percentage down. The Fire trailed in Saturday’s game by 20 points at halftime but outscored Adelaide 33-7 in the second half and will look to bring that momentum into Bendat. Townsville plays back-to-back games in Round 5 as it faces Adelaide again on Friday afternoon. 

Perth will travel to Victoria and have the Southside Flyers to look forward to on Sunday and will be in great shape off three days’ rest if they can defeat Townsville in Wednesday’s matchup. The Lynx battled Southside to open their account this season and won by 15 points after dominating the first three quarters. They kept the Flyers to just 20 per cent from three and less than 40 per cent from the field. They will need to curb Alice Kunek’s influence though, as she posted 22 points, 11 rebounds and two steals in that matchup and has averaged nearly 18 points per game for the season. 

NBL25 action returns to Western Australia on Friday night as the Perth Wildcats take on the Brisbane Bullets. These two sides played off in the final game before the FIBA break just a week and a half ago, and Brisbane won comfortably on the back of a record-breaking performance from import James Batemon and his 51 points. 

The Wildcats will look to bounce back from the loss after some much-needed rest, as Bryce Cotton, Tai Webster and Kristian Doolittle return to full health. Head coach John Rillie had some much-needed time to regroup with his now healthy squad and begin planning and strategising for the second half of the season.

The lone Wildcat to play over the break was young guard Ben Henshall, who excelled in his role as a scorer. Henshall posted 16 points and eight rebounds after contributing 12 points, seven rebounds and eight assists in the game prior. For Brisbane, Rocco Zikarsky was solid for the Boomers and will hope to continue that form upon returning to the NBL side. 

Round 10 will mark the half-way point of the NBL season with both sides hovering just outside of the top 5. Brisbane, however, will play three more games on the run home than Perth and could make up the distance between them with a few wins on the trot. 

In their last outing, Perth were unable to make shots going 29/84 from the field and a disastrous 4/28 from beyond the arc, good for just 14 per cent. Having Cotton and Doolittle back will ease the load on some of the role players in the squad, and their shooting contributions will be invaluable for the Wildcats. Doolittle in particular will be handy on the defensive end where he likely would have gotten the Batemon matchup once he started to catch fire in Round Nine. Doolittle’s size is a fearsome sight for offensive players, and he will make it much tougher for Batemon to get easy looks. 

Brisbane did not have Casey Prather for the last game against Perth and will hope that his scoring punch can help to match that of the returning Wildcats. Josh Bannan was also banged up during the break, so the Bullets will hope he can contribute in full minutes come Friday night.

Following this game Brisbane don’t play again until next Friday against Adelaide, but Perth will host a second matchup in Round 10 against the New Zealand Breakers and the newly acquired Tacko Fall. Fall will play his first NBL game against the Wildcats, where centres Keanu Pinder and Izan Almansa will have their hands full trying to defend the seven-foot-six ex-NBA player. 

New Zealand entered the break having won four of their last five games and sitting second on the NBL table and will now look to pair the tallest player in the league with MVP candidate Parker Jackson-Cartwright. Jackson-Cartwright leads the league in assists per game at 7.4 per contest and sits sixth in scoring dropping 18.6 points per game.