Brydens Sydney Uni Flames captain Alicia Poto has vowed that the Flames will perform strongly against the Townsville Fire in this Friday night’s Wattle Valley WNBL Ovarian Cancer Awareness Round clash at Brydens Stadium.
Despite being out of the WNBL finals race following a brave nine point loss to competition leaders Bendigo on Saturday night, Poto is confident that a team goal will ensure that the Flames will be more than ready against the fourth placed Fire.
“We (the team) have set ourselves a goal for the last few games to make sure that we finish the season strongly and to be competitive and to win as many games as we can,” said Poto, who will play her 219th WNBL game on Friday night.
“We will try and win every game that we play and Townsville are going to be no different. We want to build on a good performance on Saturday and we are definitely looking forward to playing Townsville this week. Regardless of the team’s positions on the ladder, we are playing to win the game.”
Standing in the way of the Flames will be 192cm centre and three times Olympic Games medallist Suzy Batkovic. She has averaged 19.3 points per game and 12.5 boards in season 2013/14, and Poto is well aware of former teammate’s impact.
“Suzy is a world class player and she’s been at the top in terms of Australian posts over the last decade at least, so we are going to try and limit her touches,” explained Poto.
“At the same time, if you try and limit Suzy then you’ve got players like Steph Cumming and Micaela Cocks who can pop up and score well. They have so much depth.
“We would obviously like to stop everything that they’ll throw at us, but I think that if we make them shoot shots that they don’t like to shoot, then at least we’ll give ourselves a chance to win the game.”
Poto was also adamant that the Flames had to continue to concentrate on putting together four quarters of solid defence.
“We have to make sure that we concentrate and don’t have those down periods where we aren’t at our best defensively,” said Poto.
“We need knuckle down on Friday night and if they score two points, then we have to through our offense and take a good shot at the other end of the court.”
The Flames also take on the Logan Thunder this Sunday at 2pm at Logan Metro.
Friday’s night’s game is proudly supported by yelp.com.au, the online city guide helping you find the best places to eat, drink, shop and shoot hoops in Sydney and around the world. Download the free Yelp app today.
Yelp is extremely excited to be supporting the Flames WNBL Ovarian Cancer Awareness Round clash at Brydens Stadium and will be running some fun activities on Friday night to help raise some money for Ovarian Cancer Australia.
The Wattle Valley WNBL Ovarian Cancer Awareness Round is a real opportunity to support this great charity and raise some much needed funds in the fight against this disease.
The Brydens Sydney Uni Flames encourage everyone to wear teal coloured clothing, ribbons, flags and generally just “Teal it Up” to support the round! We will also be staging a “High Teal” (high tea with a splash of teal!).
Tip-off is at 7.30pm at Brydens Stadium, Sydney Uni Sports & Aquatic Centre.
