THE WNBL season will officially come down to the final game of the regular season to determine the ladder positions going into the playoffs.

Townsville Fire ran out 33-point winners over the Sydney Flames on Wednesday, leaving them tied for second place on the ladder with the Perth Lynx. Both sides have a record of 15-5 for a win-percentage of 75 per cent, and they have split the season series, meaning both sides are dead even. Townsville has a higher percentage on the season thanks to a better points-for/points-against split, but the tiebreaker will be determined by who wins between Perth and Townsville on Sunday afternoon. 

While Perth has held second spot almost all season long, its recent form has been shaky. The Lynx are 3-2 in their last five games but enter off the back of a comfortable win over Geelong United.

In that last outing Perth got solid scoring numbers from Miela Sowah who has averaged 16 points per contest in a breakout season. Laeticia Amihere also averages 15.8 points per game, and the pair have led the Lynx offence all year, sitting fourth and fifth in the league for points per game. Anneli Maley ripped down 14 rebounds in their last match as has become the norm for her, sitting second in the competition for rebounds per game at 12.1. 

Townsville meanwhile, is on an eight-game winning streak and has won 11 of its last 12 games. The Fire, scorching hot, demolished the Flames on Wednesday off the back of an impressive defensive performance in which they held a short-handed Sydney side to just 50 points. Townsville is an exceptional defensive team – that was the third time it has kept an opponent to a score 50 or less this season. The Fire have the smallest total points against of any team in the competition and are second for total blocked shots. 

In their two meetings this season, both in Perth, the sides have battled out a thriller that the Fire came out victorious in, and a blowout that the Lynx won with ease.

Townsville’s win came off the back of some huge offensive outbursts from superstar Courtney Woods and the unheralded Alicia Froling who both posted 25 points. Froling also grabbed 10 boards. The usual suspects led the way for Perth in that game, Sowah and Amihere combining to score 40 points, but it was surprisingly the rebound battle where it was won for Townsville.

Perth leads the league in rebounds per game but was dominated by the Fire who pulled down 19 more and turned them into 19 second chance points, and a whopping 56 points in the paint. 

The second meeting was all Lynx as eight Perth players scored nine points or more. The home side shot the ball miraculously well (62 per cent from the field and an absurd 70 per cent from three-point range) and dropped 106 points. The Fire stood no chance in this offensive barrage and will be eager not to let Perth catch fire from deep again. Townsville is the best three-point shooting team in the league, and takes the most, so the Lynx will need to be wary of its perimeter scoring. 

This has all the makings of a historic battle and should be a superb way to end the WNBL regular season, as both sides claw their way towards a top two finish.