Woods calls GAME! Hits winner as clock expires

• Townsville Fire narrowly secures win against Adelaide Lightning 69-68.
• Courtney Woods leads Townsville with 25 points while Isobel Borlase knocks down 18 for Adelaide
• Both teams shot more than 38% from the field.

Courtney Woods! Take a bow. What a play.

Road-weary Townsville, down one with with 4.4 seconds left against Adelaide on the road, kicked the ball to Lauren Mansfield on the right wing. Her contested three hit the back iron, bounced high off the rim but Woods ripped down the long rebound just below the free throw, and with 1.7 seconds left, stepped under a Lightning defender to bank home the winner — 69-68 — from the right block as clock hit 0.0.

Queue: Scenes.

The Lightning blew a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter. Adelaide's Isobel Borlase knocked down a pair of free throws just 45 seconds into the last quarter to make it 65-50. But the Lightning didn't score for another seven minutes while the Fire went on dominant 15-0 run (Game Centre).

Borlase hit an open three from the wing to put the Lightning back up 68-65 late in the ball game then Woods scored on a lay-up to make it 68-67. Adelaide came up empty after an offensive foul on Japreece Dean.

Enter Courtney Woods: Clutch rebound; and boom, game-winner off the glass.

Key Performances

Courtney Woods was a standout for Townsville, dropping 25 points, dishing out eight assists, and grabbing five boards. Her performance was pivotal. Teammate Lauren Cox had 12 points and seven rebounds while Alexandra Fowler racked up a nice double-double with 10 points and 11 boards.

For Adelaide, Isobel Borlase put up 18 points and pulling down six rebounds while teammates Brianna Turner also made significant contributions with a solid double-double, scoring 15 points and securing 14 rebounds and WNBA player and Australian Opal Steph Talbot scoring 13 points, had six assists, and seven boards.

Adelaide's field goal shooting was decent at 38.1%, and  31.6% from behind the three-point line. Townsville matched them in field goal accuracy at 38.2% and had a slightly lower three-point shooting percentage at 29.6%. If Townsville lost it would have been from the free throw line shooting just 9-of-19 (47.4%).

But Woods saved them.

Looking Ahead

Townsville Fire (4-3) looks to carry winning momentum into their next game after a tough road trip. After tough stretch of four games in less than 10 days, they now have two weeks off before playing top-of-the-ladder Bendigo Spirit (Game Centre) at home in round seven on Saturday December 14, 2024.

Adelaide Lightning (1-5) have seven days to prepare for a road game (Game Centre) against the Southside Flyers (2-3) in Melbourne on Friday, December 6, 2024.