It's been an "uncomfortable" wait in more ways than one for the Perth Lynx, but coach Andy Stewart says his WNBL team are primed to break their 24-year title drought in the upcoming grand final series against Townsville Fire.
Game one of the best-of-three series will take place at the Bendat Basketball Centre in Perth on Saturday night, with Townsville to host game two next Friday.
The Lynx, who have also been called the West Coast Waves and Perth Breakers in the past, haven't won the WNBL Championship since 1992.
Their last grand final appearance came back in 1999, and before this season's surge they hadn't even made the playoffs since 2000.
But under the new ownership of Perth Wildcats chairman Jack Bendat, the Lynx have transformed themselves into a WNBL force.
After finishing second on the ladder, Perth crushed defending champions Townsville 91-72 in the semi-finals to earn home-court advantage for the grand final series.
But the win also came packaged with a problem - a 13-day break between games.
"It's been a bit of an uncomfortable wait," Lynx coach Andy Stewart said.
"Last Saturday, we organised an intraclub scrimmage.
"We even got spectators and referees down to try to simulate a game as well as we could.
"We normally just get one person watching at training.
"So the fact we had 70, 80 people cheering and clapping altered the atmosphere."
Townsville won their way through to the grand final series by beating the South East Queensland Stars 91-71 on Sunday.
The Fire will rely heavily on the league's best scorer Suzy Batkovic against Perth.
Stewart said only a team-wide approach would be able to halt the influence of Batkovic, who has averaged 20.8 points per game this season.
"You know she's going to score. She's too good," Stewart said.
"You know things are going to happen around her.
"We've just got to make her work for everything. The main thing is to not give her easy stuff."
Stewart said his team's title drought wouldn't weigh down heavily on the players.
"None of us really relate to it," he said.
"We don't remember what was happening on the court 15 years ago. This is about us getting ready and doing the best we can."
Share
