Surging Perth Lynx have emerged as the WNBL team to beat as a Liz Cambage inspired Melbourne have muscled their way into the top three.
Opals stars Cambage piled up 38 points on 16 of 18 field goal shooting and added 13 boards in the Boomers' 92-72 home drubbing of Canberra.
They ousted slumping defending champions Sydney University from the top three, after the Flames started the round level with Townsville and Perth.
Victories at home to Canberra 89-76 and 89-74 away to Adelaide made it nine straight wins for Perth, who lost four of their first five including their first three.
The final scores disguised how hard Perth had to battle in both games, as they recovered from double-digit deficits in each, trailing by as much as 16 against Canberra.
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Imports Courtney Williams and Sami Whitcomb led Perth's scorers in both games.
"I don't know that we're worried about being the top team, but we are worried about playing good basketball," Lynx coach Andy Stewart said.
"We're starting to play a whole lot better sort of basketball."
Sydney suffered successive three-point home losses in the latest round and have dropped four of their last five.
They went down 77-74 to Adelaide despite a massive 25-point 17-rebound game by import centre Jen Hamson, and lost 88-85 to Townsville, giving up big starts in both games.
"The last couple of games we've had those flat starts and we've been chasing our tails from the start," Flames' star Alex Wilson said.
"I can't pinpoint it to one thing but we just need to come out with more intensity right from the start."
The Flames lost star forward Asia Taylor early in the final quarter against Townsville after she took a knock to an eye.
Fire's win over Sydney enabled them to split their road double after a 78-59 loss at Dandenong, where they posted their lowest score of the season and shot 33 per cent from the field.
"We had a bit of a heart to heart talk after that one to make sure that we don't repeat that," Townsville coach Claudia Brassard said.
Veteran Fire centre Suzy Batkovic marked her recall to the Opals squad by top scoring in both of Townsville's games.
Fire guard Kelly Wilson missed the Sydney game with a broken thumb, with the club waiting to find out how long she might be sidelined.
Dandenong moved to within a win of fourth and completed a good round's work with a 75-67 victory at struggling Bendigo.
