THE Southside Flyers are back on the winners’ list after claiming a whopping 21-point victory over the Perth Lynx at State Basketball Centre in the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) on Wednesday night.

The Flyers came into the game on the back of a substantial loss to the Flames earlier in the round, and severely underperformed in that outing. At such an important time of the season, it was imperative that they bounced back on Wednesday.

Comparatively, the Lynx had also sustained a loss earlier in the week, at the hands of the other Melbourne-based side in the Boomers. Both sides are vying for spot in the finals, and with the top six extremely tight as it stands, it shaped as a seriously important clash.

Southside Flyers (91) def. Perth Lynx (70)

The Lynx got the jump on the Flyers in the opening quarter, pushing the tempo and finding the right shots in transition. Although the home side was keeping up with the pace for much of the term, they still trailed by six at the first change.

The second quarter was where the script was flipped, with Southside getting on some sort of role on the offensive end. Perth was outscored 34-17 in that time, and completely lost momentum of the match. The shots simply stopped falling for the Lynx, and in turn, the Flyers took a substantial lead into the main change.

Scoring dried up for Southside in the third quarter, but the Lynx could not take advantage and somehow fell further behind. Perth managed just 11 points in the quarter to Southside’s 14, and despite being able to contain the offensive onslaught from the second quarter, the Lynx still trailed by double-digits at the final break.

Southside found its scoring rhythm in the last term once again, and looked a class above the Lynx. Perth was completely outperformed on both ends, with the final margin sitting at 21.

On the scoring front, Leilani Mitchell (22 points, 5/12 3PT), Mercedes Russell (21 points, 10 rebounds) and Rebecca Cole (21 points, seven assists) did the heavy lifting and pushed the team to a winning total. Also impressing for the victors was Maddison Rocci, who was immense on both ends with 13 points, four rebounds, nine assists and nine steals.

For the Lynx, Amy Atwell was the standout with 24 points, doing most of her damage from the free throw line, where she went 12/13.