Perth Lynx Preview – Away to Sydney Flames
There’s plenty at stake on Saturday in Sydney for both teams with the Perth Lynx needing to keep winning to stay solid in second spot in the WNBL while the Sydney Flames have to do the same to stay fourth.
The Lynx head back to Sydney to play the Flames for a second time there this season and looking to get one back on them after losing on the last visit by 11 points back on December 7.
So the Lynx return looking to earn a measure of revenge on that one but also knowing they need to keep winning to stay second, and also looking for a better performance even though they are coming off a win last Saturday against the Southside Flyers.
In order to stay clear in second spot, the Lynx do need to keep winning over the next three games to avoid the potential of the last game of the regular season on the road to the Townsville Fire having second position on the line.
While the Lynx aren’t short on motivation heading into the match up in Sydney, the Flames have plenty to play for too as they look to holding onto fourth position and to try to hit back themselves from a loss in Townsville to the Fire on Wednesday night.
It looms as a fascinating match up and a crucial one for both teams as the run home to the end of the WNBL season heats up, but the Lynx players will still have their ears ringing after coach Ryan Petrik was desperately unhappy last Saturday night against Southside.
Perth were back home to host the bottom placed Flyers looking to bounce back from a loss to the Bendigo Spirit where they slipped two games off top spot, but the first half against Southside left a lot to be desired.
Despite 17 points from Ally Wilson and 13 rebounds from Anneli Maley, the Lynx were down by 13 points at the break while shooting just 35 per cent from the field and 4/15 from three.
Even at three quarter-time they were still down by seven, but produced a huge fourth quarter with 27 points to 12 to win 86-78 and stay second, but Petrik was anything but happy afterwards.
That meant that the two games last week were almost mirror images where the Lynx were on top most of the night against the Spirit on the Wednesday night before being overrun in the fourth term to end up losing by nine.
It was then Perth’s turn to play catch up on Saturday night in the last game of the season at the Perth High Performance Centre, and while they successfully fought back, Petrik let his team know his thoughts afterwards.
A four-quarter effort from the Lynx will now be the order of the day in Sydney on Saturday against the Flames on the back of that.
“It’s good that we got the response but for a professional basketball team to serve that up in the first half, it was not acceptable,” Petrik said.
“It’s great that we got the response after half-time, but taking a glass half empty view, where was this in the first half? The fact that you actually can do it but you needed to get yelled at to do it in a professional basketball league, that’s the problem.
“This isn’t amateur league and we’ve not won since 1992 but we’re carrying on like we’ve won the last championships, but we haven’t and we’re sitting second.
We haven’t won in forever so it’s great that we got a response after half-time, but where was that in the first half?”
CYGNETT WNBL SEASON 2024/25
Round 13 – Perth Lynx v Sydney Flames
Venue – Quaycentre, Sydney
Tip-off – Saturday January 25, 2:30pm AWST
How to watch – Live, free and on demand on 9Now