Stars look to regroup after third consecutive loss

The Stars, coming off losses to Sydney and Townsville, struggled to shoot the ball for most of the match, which effected their intensity on defence, a trait head coach Shane Heal said he was trying to reverse as he builds the club's culture in their first year in the WNBL.

"I thought we had lots of opportunities as well, and the biggest problem for us is we got so many open shots, our shots weren't dropping today and we didn't really knuckle down on defence and we let our shooting effect the way we play D (defence) on a possession basis, great teams don't do that, whether you make or miss shots, you still go back and you play D, and you get stops and then you run again, and we rely on being able to get stops to be able to get our transition game going and we just didn't get any flow tonight," he said.

"You can't rely that your going to hit shots all the time, no team can, you have to rely on that you're going to the right thing and follow the process defensively and your mindset doesn't change whether you make or miss shots."

The Stars started the game without import centre Denesha Stallworth, who parted ways with the club after asking for a release, and were out rebounded by the tall Lynx team, who dominated the interior, scoring 40 of their points from inside the paint.

South East Queensland began the game well, forcing a number of turnovers in jumping out to a 22-13 lead behind six points from Rachel Jarry and eight from Ify Ibekwe, before Lynx coach Andy Stewart called a timeout. The Lynx rallied to close to within a point at 24-23 at the first break.

Perth continued to apply the pressure to the Stars in the second quarter and took an 11 point lead into the main break at 44-33, which would have been worse if not for a late Jarry three pointer.

The Stars came out in the third with a fire in the belly and moved to within five points at 45-50, thanks largely to seven straight points from Bec Allen, who looked to have finally found the form she had before an injury kept her off the court for six months.

But just as Allen started heating up she fell heavily in a rebound contest and had to be helped off the floor, the sight of the Opal walking gingerly to the bench putting a scare through the already undermanned Stars team. Perth managed to keep its double digit lead heading into the final period 60-50.

Though Allen would return to the court, the Stars could not get back into the game in the fourth, the Lynx taking home their eighth win and top place on the WNBL ladder.

Lynx point guard Tess Lavey said she was happy with the way her team shared the scoring load, which included 18 points from Betnijah Laney and 17 points from Sami Whitcomb, while Louella Tomlinson scored 16 and grabbed nine rebounds. Lavey and Natalie Burton scored 12 points each.

"We don't want to put that sort of pressure on someone to come out and perform every single game and for us to get that consistency across the board is really nice for us, and it just shows that all the girls are putting in that extra effort and we're all having a go," she said.

The loss drops the Stars to sixth on the ladder with a record of six wins and four losses, while Perth surge to first place.

Stars co-captain Amy Lewis said the playing group was still confident of getting back to their winning ways.

"We've got that belief in ourselves that we know that we can play well, we have slipped the last couple of games which we have been disappointed about, we've faced a bit of adversity this week and we're having to play big and a lot of the girls are having to go up against bigger opponents but we just need to knuckle down and toughen up basically, we know we've got it within us we just need to train harder and come out and get the win next week," she said.

The Stars take on Bendigo Spirit in round nine of the WNBL season on December 6 at the Logan Metro Sports Centre from 4pm.

This story first appeared on the Jimboomba Times.

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