By Marcus Uhe
A season-ending achilles injury to Lauren Jackson and the conclusion of their three-game winning streak put a dampener on the Southside Flyers record-breaking night in the WNBL on Saturday.
Kayla Thornton was unable to repeat her late-game heroics of last week, in which she produced the game-winning layup to get the Flyers over the line against Adelaide, missing a running hook shot at the buzzer as the Sydney Flames claimed a one-point victory, 68-67 in front of a WNBL record crowd of 7681 at John Cain Arena.
The occasion took a sharp turn early in the game, with Jackson forced from the court after the first minute.
Jackson, who revealed last month that she was playing through the pain of a broken foot, took no-further part in the contest, having re-emerged from the change rooms on crutches later in the game.
On Sunday the Flyers confirmed that scans showed a partial tear in Jackson’s right achilles tendon, ruling her out for the remainder of the Flyers’ campaign, however the 41-year-old will not require surgery.
The game itself was a seesawing battle between two teams who played in a five-point thriller in Sydney two weeks ago.
Rebecca Cole was on fire early, scoring all six of her points in the opening quarter, but the Flames were able to capitalise on Southside missing Jackson’s minutes early in the game to take a three-point lead into the first break.
Guard, Maddison Rocci took-over in the second as the Flyers began to make the running.
Rocci had 11 points in the quarter but steady three-point shooting from the Flames kept them in the contest, despite not scoring for nearly three minutes early in the quarter.
A missed layup from Nyadiew Puoch in the final minute of the half threatened to derail their momentum, as the make would have given them a six-point lead just before the long break.
Her miss, however, opened the door for Sydney to make one at the other end, to cut the lead to two at the half.
The third quarter once again highlighted the absence of Jackson as scoring dried-up for the Flyers starting group.
A basket from Puoch, at the six minute mark, was only their second field-goal of the quarter, as Sydney’s Tiana Mangakahia’s speed was proving effective around the basket.
Taking a three-point lead into the final term, the game was truly up for grabs.
The two sides traded the lead for much of the quarter, but gritty work on the offensive glass from Monique Conti and Thornton led to second-chance points for the Flyers, who opened-up a nine-point lead with three minutes remaining.
Accurate shooting from Sydney’s Vanessa Panousis, however, kept stoking the Flames, and in the blink of an eye, the game was tied at 65 with less than two minutes remaining.
For a team that had pulled-off close victories in recent weeks, the execution late in the game was not what the Flyers would have anticipated.
Sara Blicavs turned the ball over with an errant pass to Abby Bishop with roughly a minute remaining, before Bishop missed a chance to put them ahead when the scores were tied with 10 seconds remaining.
They were forced to foul Mangakahia, who made one free throw, before having one final opportunity to win the game through Thornton, who couldn’t get the friendly roll on her shot.
Rocci top-scored for Southside with 19 points but was uncharacteristically wayward with the ball, throwing seven turnovers.
Thornton, who was required to play nearly 36 minutes due to Jackson’s absence, added 14 points and nine rebounds, but finished a team-worst -10 on the box score.
Southside next face Bendigo in Geelong on Saturday 11 February.
