AIS finishes Double of Doom and Adelaide rips Sydney to round out first week of WNBL action

There was sport other than the NRL Grand Final happening on Sunday with two NBL matches taking place.

The AIS finished the second leg of their Queensland double with another comprehensive loss at Townsville by a score of 97-62 while in Adelaide, the Link opened their season with an 86-73 victory of the visiting Sydney Flames.

In Townsville the Fire blazed away to a 26-14 quarter time lead and were rarely bother in the win over the students. Amy Lewis covered the absence of Rohanee Cox, topping the Fire score tally with 21 points. Rachael Flanagan added 19 points with Aneka Davis (12 points/12 rebounds), Leah Rush (12 points/9 rebounds) and Rebecca Schatz (12 points) providing additional punch.

Jillian Haughton with 11 points and Tayla Roberts 10 points/9 rebounds were best on court for the students.

In Adelaide, Jess Foley (25 points) and Angela Marino (15 points) helped the Link offset 29 points by Opal Suzy Batkovic-Brown who was seeing her first WNBL action since 2002. The link used a strong second stanza to pull away to an 11 point (43-32) half time lead and stretched it to as much as 18 points (71-53) in the third term before holding on for the final margin of 86-73.

Marino added 8 assists and Foley grabbed 7 rebounds to go along with their respective scoring totals. Cayla Francis added 14 points, Mia Newley chipped in with 11 points/7 rebounds and Sam Woosnam dished out 7 assists and snared 7 boards for the Link.

Natalie Porter posted 21 points/9 rebounds and Deanna Smith put in 10 points for the Flames in the losing effort.

Oh yes it's Ladies night....WNBL season kicks off tonight.

The 2009-2010 WNBL season gets underway tonight with Dandenong hosting Bendigo, Logan hosting the AIS and Sydney visiting Perth.

At Dandenong captain Caitlyn Ryan returns from shoulder problems to lead the charge for the Rangers when they match up with the visiting Spirit. These two always play intense matches with each other so prediction wise, I'll go with the home team in a close one by 3.

The Logan thunder will debut a good sized "Thunder Stick" tonight when Marta Dydek from Poland takes the court against the AIS. All-Rounder Kirsten Veal will be there to keep the lightning in the Tunder attack. I'll go with the Thunder by say 18+ in this one.

In the nights final match up, Perth host the Sydney Flames. The Lynx are looking for improvement this season and are ready to pounce on any visitors who see them as an easy road win. That said, I don't think the Flames will be the first victims this week, Sydney by 8.

The always exciting Saturday afternoon match has the Canberra Capitals defending the home turf against Bulleen. Carrie Graf's squad will be hungry for a positive start to their title defense and features one of the deepest teams in the comp. Bullen will have to settle for using the game to gauge how much work they need to do. I see the title holders winning by 12 or more.

The Ais and Sydney are the weeks "double" teams as the students travel to Townsville where Rohanee Cox and the Fire lie in wait. No happy endings for the AIS here, Townsville by 25 or more. Sydney's Flames will complete their double at Adelaide where they will be in for a tussle with the Link. These teams are fierce rivals and always bring out the best in one another. Can't split them so I'll go with the home standing Link by 2.

If you are near any of the home coursts this weekend, get out and watch some entertianing and exciting basketball action.

While we are on the womens game, here is a story from http://www.basketball.net.au featuring a couple of Aussie ladies going well in the USA.

Opals star as Mercury top Fever

Australia's Penny Taylor played a starring role as her Phoenix Mercury secured a crucial 1-0 lead in the best-of-five WNBA Finals series against Indiana on Wednesday, writes James Dampney for AAP.

In the highest-scoring game in WNBA history, Opals stand-out Taylor scored an equal team-high 23 points in the Mercury's 120-116 overtime victory at the US Airways Center in Phoenix.

Phoenix and Taylor are chasing their second WNBA championship in three seasons and host game two on Friday before the series shifts to Indiana.

Starting Fever point guard and Taylor's Opals teammate Tully Bevilaqua also had a solid night, scoring 14 points and dishing out four assists, but Indiana fell just short of stealing home court advantage in the series.

In a see-sawing encounter that featured 19 lead changes and 13 ties, Indiana's Katie Douglas hit a three-pointer with 7.1 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to force overtime.

But Mercury guard Cappie Pondexter, who matched Taylor's 23-point haul, scored seven points in the extra period to guide Phoenix home.

Douglas led all scorers with 30 points, while teammate Ebony Hoffman stepped up big time with a career-high 27 points.

But they couldn't contain the deep Phoenix line-up, with six Mercury players finishing with double-figure scoring.

Diana Taurasi, who was named league MVP before the game, tallied 22 points and nine boards for the Mercury.

And Taylor kept them in it midway through the game when her teammates had gone cold, hitting 7-of-10 shots from the field overall, including 2-of-3 from three-point territory and 7-of-8 from the free-throw line.

The 2006 world championships MVP also added two boards, two assists and two steals in just over 27 minutes on court.

"I know with Cappie, (Taurasi) and Penny, there is no such thing as pressure," Mercury coach Corey Gaines said.

"They've played in big games their whole life."

The match-up was supposed to be a contrast between Phoenix's high-octane offence and Indiana's vaunted defence, but that didn't eventuate in game one.

"It wasn't the defensive-versus-offensive game people were expecting, clearly," Taylor said.

"Anyone who saw this game could tell you that.

"It was just amazing displays of talent, especially down the stretch."

Prior to this game the league's highest-scoring contest was Phoenix's 111-110 victory over Houston in triple overtime in a regular-season contest back in 2006.

The Mercury and Fever both scored more points than any team previously in league history, with the previous best Phoenix's 115 in an overtime win over Sacramento on June 13 this season.

PHOENIX 120 (Penny Taylor 23, Cappie Pondexter 23, Diana Taurasi 22) btINDIANA 116 (Katie Douglas 30, Ebony Hoffman 27, Tammy Sutton-Brown 19)in overtime at US Airways Arena, Phoenix, Arizona, USA Phoenix leads best-of-five series 1-0. Image courtesy wnba.com