Great to see the Caps finally christen the W column.

Spirit a worry. They've lost 4 of their last 5. Fingers crossed Griffin is healthy quickly.
Bendigo get the chance to avenge the loss at home next round.

TESS MADGEN INJURY UPDATE
Tess Madgen will sit out the remainder of the 2022-23 Cygnett WNBL season.
...
Madgen had surgery on her knee following an injury sustained during the Australian Opals preparation and participation in the FIBA Women's World Cup, and despite solid progress from her rehabilitation, it has become evident that further time is needed to fully recover from the injury before being able to return to the court.

Madgen won't play again this season.

What happened to Griffin?

Injury of some sort.

Bendigo's defence has curiously evaporated in the last few games. Even the worst three point shooting team in the league had a good shooting day against them today.

For somebody who isn't "a natural point guard", Melbourne's court vision is pretty damn good. Enough reason to keep persisting playing her there. She'd be amongst the top assist leaders in the league if she had better finishers around her.

Swain's scoring in the last 5 games - 19 points per game at 49% field goal and three point percentage. Very impressive.

Change needed

Lavey-kWilson
Wehrung-Mclean
Maley-aWilson
Griffin-Locandro-dunlop
Froling-Mckay

What happened to Griffin?

Griffin injury -> Canberra win

Talbot injury -> Sydney win

Great little cameo by Emma Clarke knocking down threes during that huge Flames comeback

Good comeback from Sydney - they were down by 23 points early on in the third quarter. Must be close to a record, surely. Clarke was a clutch shooter and played solid defence - she needs more minutes. Sjerven was the unsung hero of the game - the Flames did go on their massive run after she was subbed off early in the third quarter, but she kept the Flames in the game when the rest of the team stunk it up early.

Adelaide did choke a bit but I thought the second half was more regression to the mean than anything else. Sydney were missing a lot of decent looks in the first half and hit more of them in the second half. Talbot's absence hurt Adelaide's defence too obviously. Hope she's ok for the Bendigo game.

A rare article in The West that isn't paywalled

It's not a bird or a plane, it’s Super Scherf rescuing Perth! Lauren Scherf dominating WNBL season for Lynx

Glad to see Scherf getting some more love.
She is going to have her hands full tonight against the front court of the Flyers

Great to see Southside lose tonight & keep their massive ego's in check. Plenty of whining & whinging by Flyers players i.e. Rocci, Blicavs, Jackson, Conti & Bishop when things aren’t going their way.

Nice to see elite offence winning out tonight. You couldn't really tell that Southside has the best defence in the competition with the way Whitcomb and Atwell were dominating on the offensive end. And a real changing of the guard moment with Scherf comprehensively schooling LJ at both ends of the court.

Great round of basketball so far with the underdogs all winning.

That game was

It has been a great round so far. Perth are taking Bendigo's spot in that top 4 for sure, much better outfit, weapons everywhere

If

Upset round lasted 3 nights but it has been back to normal since then.

Rather unusual shooting numbers by Shyla Heal across the last 2 rounds (= 3 Flames games.
3 point range: 10/20 = 50.0%
2 point range: 2/28 = 7.1%

Had to chuckle when Alabakov called Kiera Rowe a 3 and D player during the broadcast and she proceeded to demonstrate that she couldn't defend anybody on Townsville and fouled out in ten minutes. She hit a three, at least.

Predictable game. Was hoping Sydney could provide some fight today but nope, nobody on the Flames could play much D except maybe Sjerven.

Maybe the D stands for Disqualifying foul

I am a fan of Shyla Heal taking more three point shots, but she doesn't work as a good scorer with those percentages. I'm sure there will be some regression to the mean eventually but she never seems to get what I'd class as good looks inside and she's going to have to either improve this or change her shot selection. She needs to be shiftier off the dribble but her lack of athleticism will challenge her here. She should look at Steph Reid's game for some inspiration - similar size but Reid is a much better finisher. I think Reid is the better athlete though.

The percentages above are just a really freaky quirk of course.

Bigger picture, I haven't looked at the numbers but just on gut feel it seems like her overall scoring game has regressed since that Townsville season. I thought she was very crafty and efficient inside or outside the arc back then. She was tough to contain and seemed to have counters for most things that teams threw at her.