Madeline Irwin
The Queensland Firebirds have pulled off an upset to the tune of seven goals over their rivals, the Sunshine Coast Lightning.
Firebirds trio Kelly Jackson, Te Paea Selby-Rickit and Mary Cholhok were impressive across the match, while Lara Dunkley and Maddy Gordon also contributed strongly.
Jackson had her work cut out for her with Donnell Wallam, however the latter was inaccurate during the game, in part due to the defensive pressure from her opponent.
Selby-Rickit (18 from 19) was a force through the court, adding 21 goal assists and 25 feeds to her stats sheet. Cholhok (46 goals) shot at 88 per cent, bringing a commanding presence in the circle.
Gordon had 20 feeds and 10 goal assists to go with two intercepts and two deflections, while Dunkley had a game-high 27 feeds to go with 14 goal assists and 12 centre pass receives.
The opening quarter finished at 16 goals a piece, with the Queensland Firebirds going on to notch up a winning second quarter for only the second time this season.
The Firebirds have ended the Lightning's shot at the premiership.
The game was characterised by similar general play turnover and penalty counts between the Firebirds and Lightning in the first half. The Firebirds had 10 general play turnovers, two more than their rivals, while the penalties were 22 and 23 respectively, in favour of the Lightning.
The first quarter ebb’ed and flowed, with both sides managing small leads throughout the opening stanza. The defensive pressure on the ball carrier was immense all over the court, but particularly for the Firebirds who were eager to reverse the result of the past eight clashes between the teams.
As a result of the pressure, both sides were unable to settle, which saw 19 players out of 20 take to the court in the first half. A feature of the half across the Firebirds and Lightning was the goal attacks (Cara Koenen and Selby-Rickit) leading the feeds, this was reversed in the second half.
The Firebirds came into the second half three goals up, this lead was retained in the third quarter despite the Lightning’s best efforts. The home side had a superior goal to centre pass rate of 79 per cent through that period compared to the 67 per cent centre pass to goal rate of their opponents.
The Firebirds were prolific against their state rivals.
The lead went out to six goals at three quarter time for the Firebirds, as Selby-Rickit starred against Courtney Bruce and Karin Burger. She added 13 goals, which featured two Suncorp Super Shots during the first three quarters.
During the third quarter, Lightning were wasteful with their opportunities with five general play turnovers which proved costly.
A six-goal lead ballooned out to a 10-goal lead halfway through the final quarter, this saw Bruce benched in favour of Burger to attempt to quell Selby-Rickit's influence.
Despite the temptation to introduce a moving circle in the Power Five of the last quarter, Lightning head coach Belinda Reynolds stuck with Wallam instead of bringing back Gabby Sinclair to pair with Koenen.
Koenen contributed 12 goals from 16 shots, while being the main centre pass receiver for her side (22), she also added 16 feeds and two deflections to her game.
The final quarter was a close one, with the home side edging out the Lightning to take a win by enough to take bragging rights.
The Lightning will stay in Queensland to host the Adelaide Thunderbirds next week in their last game of the season while the Firebirds will fly to Victoria to face the Mavericks.
