Heat Coach blasts 'second-raters'
ANDREW ALOIA | June 27th, 2011
SECOND-placed and second-rate. Townsville Heat coach Liam Flynn was forthright in his post-mortem of the QBL top-of-the-table humbling to Gold Coast at QN Stadium on Saturday night.
The Rollers, who less than 24-hours earlier had gone down to the Marlins in Cairns, schooled the hosts in every facet of the game on the way to a comprehensive 77-61 win.
Gold Coast's zone defence suffocated Townsville, the Heat's star-studded offensive weapons shot blanks and even coach Flynn crucified himself after the loss.
"It was on all of us," Flynn said.
"I can't say that there was any one player who played any worse than another and we got out coached tonight as well. We didn't coach well."
Apart from a stunning opening burst by Heat captain Daniel Egan, sinking the first seven points of the game, and a typically explosive effort from teenager Todd Blanchfield, the competition's best roster failed to deliver in the biggest game of their season to date.
A dismal showing from the field, shooting at 32 per cent, and atrocious figures from beyond the arc, netting just six from 31 attempts, extinguished the Heat as a threat to the league pacesetters.
"It was a bit of fool's gold (at the start), we were making shots and not necessarily playing well ... we were just shooting well," Flynn said.
Gold Coast coach Mick Conlon saw that Townsville's only chance of success was if they maintained that early momentum, and enforced a zone defence - something the Heat has struggled to deal with this season.
With Scott McGregor (32 points, 17 rebounds) and David Gurney (19 points, 10 rebounds) counter-punching with double-double contributions and captain Jason Aucion at his cunning best, Townsville were in crisis when 10 points down and haemorrhaging badly at halftime.
Earlier, the Flames' winning streak continued with a solid 73-61 win over the Gold Coast.
GOLD COAST ROLLERS 77 (S McGregor 32 pts D Gurney 19) d TOWNSVILLE HEAT 61 (D Egan 15 pts T Blanchfield 14 C Cedar 9)TOWNSVILLE FLAMES 73 (L Ward 20 pts J Haughton 14 R Vaderjagt 9) d GOLD COAST ROLLERS 61 (C Reimink 17 pts J Davis 14 S Petrie 11)
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