By Marcus Uhe
The Southside Flyers ensured captain Rebecca Cole’s 250th WNBL game was one to remember, extinguishing the Sydney Flames 79-73 at the State Basketball Centre on Friday night.
Cole, a WNBL champion with Southside in 2020, a former WNBL All-Star and the 2018-19 runner-up in the Most Valuable Player voting, had a quiet night with nine points and five assists as the Flyers pulled-away in the final quarter in a much-needed win to restart their campaign, having ground to a halt in the new year.
It was a match boasting a number of ebbs and flows; Southside leading after the first quarter, only for Sydney to storm back in the second for a four-point lead at the long break.
With only four weeks remaining before finals begin, both sides were eager to keep pace with the top four.
With just a one-point lead heading into the final quarter, Southside offered their best defensive quarter of the night, keeping Sydney to just 15 points while scoring 20 of their own.
Sydney tied the scores early in the quarter, but never took the lead, as Southside’s clutch performers came to the fore.
Four-straight points to Lauren Jackson with three minutes on the clock pushed the lead to eight points, while Cole also nailed a crucial three to restore a six-point buffer midway through the term.
Jackson offered a season-best performance, tallying 28 points and four rebounds in a much-needed return to form.
While boasting a wider spread of contributors, Sydney lacked the dominant scoring presence that commanded considerable attention, as Southside boasted in Jackson.
Last season’s WNBL MVP Cayla George was held to just 10 points, well-contained by Jackson and Mercedes Russell in the front court.
Where consistent performers in Maddison Rocci (four points) and Nyadiew Puoch (three) were kept below their best, Southside would have delighted in seeing the likes of Leilani Mitchell and Jasmine Dickey step up to fill the breach.
Mitchell scored 13 points, one shy of her season-high, while Dickey was productive off the bench, doing a bit of everything with eight points, eight rebounds and four assists in 20 minutes.
Very little separated the two sides in all major categories such as rebounding (five) assists (one) and bench points (two), while points from turnovers was split at 18 each.
Southside has the chance to extend its winning streak when it tackles Bendigo in a Wednesday afternoon game at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatics Centre on 17 January.
