Boomers Grab A Vital Win Over Fire
THE DEAKIN MELBOURNE BOOMERS have stopped a late comeback from Townsville to get their seventh win of the 2018/19 Chemist Warehouse WNBL season, a hard-fought 4-point victory.
In the annual Maddie Riewoldt’s Vision Purple Power game, the Boomers were looking for their second win against the Townsville Fire in the one week – this time on home turf.
Though they have endured a frantic schedule, the Boomers looked fresh early in the contest.
In typical Boomer fashion, the game was opened with a pair of three’s courtesy of Jenna O’Hea and Cayla George. With 5 minutes to play the Fire were nursing an 11-15 lead before a hustle steal leading to a Fire technical foul got the Boomers back on track.
Sarah Boothe provided some energy off the bench on both ends to even the score up, before a pair of Maddie Garrick triples led the Boomers into the first break with the 24-20 lead.
The second period started slow on offense for the Boomers before George put in two mid-range jumpers to get her team going. The Fire held firm, but solid team scoring kept the Boomers a step ahead half-way through the quarter. The offense continued with Player of the Week Lindsay Allen cashing in a triple as time expired in the half.
Former Fire star Cayla George was having a good outing, adding another basket early in the third quarter to open up a 49-38 lead. A perfect storm of offense and defence through the first 5 minutes of the third opened the game right up with the Boomers enjoying a 17-point lead.
The offense for the Boomers slowed through the second half of the third but the squad’s physical defence kept the game in their control, heading into the last term with a 12-point lead.
The Fire started the fourth quickly with two makes, but Kalani Purcell was able to stop their momentum hitting a big corner 3. This was backed up by another silky Allen lay-up to put the game back in the Boomer’s control with 7 minutes to play.
In an offensive rebounding battle leading to a Allen triple, Purcell went down, but powered through the pain to keep helping her team on the glass. However, the Fire didn’t stop, and with a minute to play the lead was cut to just 2-points as the intensity built.
The Fire, out of a timeout, put in a basket to tie the game up with 36.5 seconds remaining. In casual fashion Allen hit up Purcell under the ring to take the lead back with 25.5 to play.
Out of another timeout the Fire missed with the Boomers securing the rebound. A foul led to Garrick nailing two free throws to put home side up 4 points with 13 seconds to play.
A Lindsay Allen steal then led to the Boomers being able to ice a massive home, the team’s second win of the weekend and a fifth win from a stretch of six games in 16 days.
In what was a solid team win the noteworthy performances included Lindsay Allen (21 points, 7 rebs, 6 assists, and 2 steals), Cayla George (17 points, 10 rebs, and 3 blocks) and Kalani Purcell (15 rebs including 8 offensive rebs), the Boomers have moved to a 7-3 record.
The Boomers will now head to Canberra to take on the UC Capitals this Friday (Nov 23, 7pm) before coming back home to play Adelaide on Sunday (Nov 25) at 3pm.
Tickets to Sunday’s game are on sale now – click HERE.
