A dominant performance from Marianna Tolo has seen the Canberra Capitals pick up their second win of the weekend, defeating the Sydney University Flames by 89-80 at Bryden’s Stadium.
The Australian centre had 38 points on 13-19 shooting, including hitting all 12 of her free throw attempts, to go with 12 rebounds, three assists and a block for good measure.
The Capitals fought their way back from a nine-point deficit in the second quarter to take their record to 2-1 for the season, resigning the Flames to their second loss in as many games.
“We want to be a team first and foremost. It’s not just about one person in our group. We want to be able to share the ball and we want to be able to find open people,” Capitals coach Paul Gorris said.
“We don’t want to be just that one-person team that only focuses on an individual.”
He recognised that Tolo was the target of their offense, but stressed the importance of the team first approach that the Capitals are looking to implement.
“It was Marianna’s night tonight, and we made it a focal point of getting her the ball, but it’s the team first.
“I was going into game number one thinking we’d need a few more weeks to gel together, but to the girl’s credit their approach to practice and their approach to the game is togetherness on and off the court.”
For the Flames, it sets up a must win game against Bendigo next Friday, or they face the unenviable task of starting the year 0-3.
Scoring off the bench was again a problem, as they managed just five bench points on the evening.
“We’re in a bit of a difficult place because we’ve had three players go down from injury so our bench is a little down on what it was, but having said that we had some people come off the bench and contribute.
“They mightn’t have done it in the scoring category but I thought they came off (the bench) and contributed,” Flames coach Cheryl Chambers said.
She recognised that they simply had no answers for the strength and finesse that Tolo brought to the game.
“I don’t think we were winning the battle at any stage. She was great on the inside and we didn’t adjust to her.
“I’ll take some of that on as a coach, our plan mustn’t have been good enough.”
The Flames had the better of the early running, with guard Leilani Mitchell draining back-to-back-to-back triples, giving the hosts a six-point lead, which they maintained through to the end of the quarter, leading 23-17.
An 8-2 run to start the second quarter had the Capitals on level terms, before an Alex Wilson trifecta sparked a Flames run of their own, as they went on to stretch their lead to as much as nine. The visitors fought back however, reducing the Flames lead to 44-42 at the main break.
It was from this point on, that Marianna Tolo made the game her own. She had 14 third quarter points, including making all four attempts from the field, and all six free throw attempts, proving simply unstoppable in the paint.
The lead got out to as much as seven for the Capitals, however some massive three pointers from Belinda Snell midway through the quarter helped the Flames to stay in the game, as they trailed 65-63 heading into the final term.
Two points was as close as the Flames would get, as the Capitals went into another gear in the final term. Mikaela Ruef came out to play, scoring six early points to stretch the lead out to as much as 12, a bridge that proved too much for the hosts to overcome.
Aside from Tolo, Lauren Mansfield stood out for the visitors, scoring 15 points to go with four rebounds, six assists and two steals. Ruef also contributed heavily to the win, scoring eight points and grabbing 14 rebounds.
Mitchell starred for the Flames, scoring 20 points, nine rebounds and nine assists in a gallant effort. Captain Belinda Snell was solid as always, dropping 14 points with four rebounds and four assists.
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