North Spotlight | Woods fires Flames to another road win

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Courtney Woods had another monster performance to lead the Townsville Flames to the double win road weekend with the 89-84 victory against the Northside Wizards on Saturday night.

The Flames started their road double with the four-point win over the Sunshine Coast Phoenix on Friday night with Woods have a huge triple double consisting of 23 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.

She might not have had a triple double again on Saturday night at Northside Indoor Sports Centre but went almighty close but even still the Wizards didn’t go away and it was a tremendous contest.

Northside were up four midway through the fourth quarter but then Townsville went on an 11-0 scoring run which was enough to secure the eventual five-point win to improve the Flames to a 3-2 record with the pair of road wins this weekend.

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The big difference in the game was Townsville's three-point shooting where they went 13/31 at 42 per cent opposed to the 8/25 at 32 per cent from Northside.

On the back of her huge triple double the night before, Courtney Woods was again outstanding with 26 points, 11 rebounds, nine assists and two steals in the win for Townsville.

She did that while shooting 7/13 from the field and 11/11 at the free-throw line.

Chailee Ward added 21 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals for the Flames with 5/12 three-point shooting while Mia Murray went 4/6 from three-point territory for 16 points, four boards and two assists.

Bree Stephens added eight points, five rebounds and two blocks, and Ella Tofaeono seven points, four assists and two rebounds.

The Wizards are now 2-2 following the loss at home with Grace Ellis having a standout night with 24 points, 15 rebounds and three assists with 8/17 shooting from the field and 6/6 at the foul line.

Kahlaijah Dean added 20 points and five assists with Nes'eya Parker-Williams having all 17 of her points up to three quarter-time along with nine rebounds, three assists, three blocks and two steals.

Courtney Virgo had a blistering start with 12 of her 15 points coming in the first term and she also finished with three rebounds while shooting 5/9 from downtown.

The Wizards were trying to back up their win against the Southern Districts Spartans with Townsville also fresh off beating the Sunshine Coast Phoenix on Friday night to start their road double to set the stage for the match up.

Courtney Virgo was able to shoot Northside to a fast start and she had 12 points to her name by quarter-time, but Courtney Woods already had another 13 for Townsville up the other end.

Woods might not have scored in the second quarter for Townsville but she was up to five rebounds and five assists while Mia Murray had knocked down three triples for 13 points.

That helped the Flames assume the 42-40 advantage going into half-time even while shooting just the 39 per cent from the floor opposed to the 45 from the Wizards.

The Wizards did manage to get back on top and lead by five in the third quarter before the Flames responded with a 10-0 run and that saw them up to a 68-65 lead again by three quarter-time with Woods having seven points, two rebounds and three assists for the term.

Again though, the Wizards managed to get back in front when Kahlaijah Dean scored with six minutes on the clock, and they were then out to a four-point with four minutes to play.

Townsville, though, scored the next 11 points from that momentum which saw them end up securing the five-point victory and make it a perfect road double in the space of 24 hours.

The Wizards now have a double header next weekend away to the Brisbane Capitals on Friday and at home to the Southern Districts Spartans on Saturday while the Flames are back home to the Mackay Meteorettes on Friday night.

NBL1 NORTH 2026 SEASON | ROUND 5

NORTHSIZE WIZARDS 84 (Ellis 24, Dean 20, Parker-Williams 17)

TOWNSVILLE FLAMES 89 (Woods 26, Ward 21, Murray 16)