The Townsville Fire ended the 2022-23 WNBL season full of dominance. The fierce girls Townsville Fire won its fourth WNBL championship after a 2-0 series win against the Southside Flyers in Melbourne

The fire had not lost any of their games since January 5 and ended their 76-day, 16-match winning streak unbeaten run right up to the second and final game championship series.  

Townsville show their characters throughout the season and hold their nerve in pressure situations. They did the same things in the last two games of the season too. This team is hungry for victory at all costs, and the Southsides had no idea what they were up against.

The first match of the series was played at Townsville Entertainment Centre on March 18. The home team, Fire, was the favourite over the visiting Flyers’ women after winning two matches by a massive margin in the semi-finals against Perth Lynx.

Townsville achieved a clean sweep of both home and away games against Perth women with 81-68 and 84-91 scores. On the other hand, the road to the final wasn’t so easy for the other finalist Flyers.

Southside won the first match against the Melbourne Boomers on their home ground with a scoreline of 84-76. However the Boomers made a comeback in the second match in front of their home crowds. They bossed up against the visiting Flyers and ended the game with a massive 96-77 scoreline. 

Consequently, both teams had to meet one more time in order to face Townsville in the final. This time the game was hosted by the Southside. In the  State Basketball Centre, the host was able to earn a dramatic single-point victory.

They beat visiting Boomers women 73-72 points and booked their place in the final of this season’s WNBL.

In the first match of the final, Townsville started to show authority over the Southside from the beginning of the first half and ended the period with a 28-14 scoreline. Fires’ women started to play more aggressively in the second quarter of the game. 

The Flyers had no clue how to deal with this smooth attack from the home team. The second half ended with a 57-38 scoreline. The Fire started the third period with a 19 points lead and started to score on a regular basis.

Townsville almost sealed the game at the end of this half. It was now a matter of how much they could score in front of their crowds and gain confidence before the second game.

The fourth and last quarter began with a 78-52 scoreline and ended with a score of 94-63. This means the favourite Fire won the match with a margin of 31 points. The Flyers’ defence was simply slandered in front of the tournament’s best attack throughout the match.

Shyla Heal leads the scoring for Townsville with 23 points. She was well supported by Tianna Hawkins, who chipped in 20 points and 5 rebounds, and for the Southside, Rebecca Cole scored 20 points.

On 22nd March, both teams met again in Melbourne at the State Basketball Centre. In a simple equation, the Fire would be crowned champions winning the series from 2 out of 3 games.

The game started with competitiveness. But it was the visiting Fires’ women who ended the first half with an 18-24 scoreline. Home side Flyers chased the game very well in the second period and only remained two points behind the visitor.

The third quarter started with a 39-41 scoreline. As the period began, both teams started playing a bit more defensively and failed to convert crucial two-pointers and three-pointers. Because of this, it wasn’t a high-scoring half, but there was plenty of excitement.

The half ended with a 56-57 score line. It was just a narrow merge that saved Fires’ lead. Crowds and momentum were fully behind Southside. 

The final quarter was expected to be intense as two of the WNBL’s top teams faced off. After battling back strongly, the Flyers begin dominating the Fire from the very first minute of the fourth period.

The Flyers led by five points with seven minutes to play, and it seemed the series would extend, but the Fire, as they have all season, flipped the script in only three minutes with a 13-3 run. 

With nine points in the final term, Tianna Hawkins changed everything. There were over three thousand supporters in the crowd who couldn’t believe what they were just seeing.

During this incredible season, the Townsville women didn’t care about anything but writing history and achieving their goals. They were rewarded with the honour of winning the champion crown in the enemy’s fort.

The game ended in a 69-82 win for the champion team Fire, which was a convenience 13-point victory. Cole was again the top scorer (26 points, 2 assists) for the runner-up Flyers side.

Stephanie Reid (20 points, 4 assists) and American importer Mikaela Ruef (12 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists) lead the show for the Fire. Hawkins also chipped in with 18 points to seal the game for her team.

After scoring 20 points and pulling down five rebounds in game one, Hawkins followed that up with 18 points on 70% shooting in the second game to earn the deserving MVP honours in the final.