Mackenzie Holmes provided the fireworks to power the cellar-dwelling Geelong Venom to a shock 88-71 victory against WNBL title fancies Townsville Fire.
After the Sydney Flames produced one of the upsets of the season by defeating Bendigo Spirit 89-78 on Monday, Geelong delivered an even more shocking win at Townsville Entertainment Centre on Tuesday night.
It came as the Venom were in the depths of misery, having not won in nine matches, sitting at the foot of the ladder and without their key starter Alex Sharp.
Townsville also welcomed back Opal Courtney Woods from a hamstring injury.
But Geelong (4-13) defied the odds, shooting out to a 23-point lead midway through the second quarter as its slick ball movement laced with pinpoint shooting (55 per cent of shots made) stunned Townsville.
Everything continued to go right for the Venom, and captain Jaz Shelley’s (15 points, eight assists) moment of the game was proof as she scored from the halfway line as the halftime buzzer rang.
After both teams traded a flurry of threes in the third quarter, Shelley and Shyla Heal found a new gear to help the Venom balloon their advantage to 26 points, which Townsville couldn’t erode.
MVP contender Holmes was at the centre of the win, complementing 30 points with 14 rebounds while Heal grabbed 25 points and seven boards.
“It’s a good reward for some hard times. I’m really proud of the girls. They deserve that,” coach Chris Lucas said.
“Defensively, it’s one of their better efforts for the year. I was really pleased to have 12 assists at halftime. That’s usually been our average for 40 minutes. I just thought we moved the ball so much better.”
The Fire (12-4) have now lost two matches in three games and missed a golden opportunity to equal Bendigo (13-3) on wins.
They were a shadow of themselves, scoring just 35 per cent of field shots while conceding 14 turnovers.
Alicia Froling was typically busy racking up 10 points and 10 rebounds and Chantel Horvat had 12 points and 10 boards.
“The first half, we were dreadful, to put it nicely,” coach Shannon Seebohm said.
“We did a better job in the second half defensively, but we were probably not where we wanted to be offensively.
“Once the scoreboard pressure was there, we started to tighten up. We missed five straight shots to start the game. That’s been the issue in some of these games. Our scoring dries up and we don’t hit shots.”
