Perth Lynx produced epic WNBL comeback to beat Sydney Flames as Tegan Graham, Amy Atwell and Anneli Maley star

Do you believe in miracles? Perth Lynx have produced a comeback for the ages with an extraordinary final quarter that saw them erase a 10-point deficit and deny the Sydney Flames a single field goal for nearly eight minutes to win 73-67 at the Perth High Performance Centre The Lynx looked gone when they’d scored only 48 points to three quarter time and had committed 19 turnovers. Sydney captain Lauren Nicholson had 20 points in the first half and was unstoppable and Perth were badly missing reigning MVP Ally Wilson (knee) and defensive guard Steph Gorman (back) But Tegan Graham moved onto Nicholson and applied an AFL style tag which halted Sydney’s scoring and then Lynx co-captain Amy Atwell got aggressive. She scored nine points in the final quarter to finish with 24 for the match. Perth’s other co-captain Anneli Maley was also brilliant with 17 points and 17 rebounds. Sydney’s first score of the final quarter came from free throws more than six minutes into the term. They took nearly eight minutes to manage a field goal and Perth forced two shot clock violations for the period. Lynx coach Ryan Petrik said he had urged his team to maintain pressure on Sydney and make the most of them playing two games this weekend. “I thought we’d hang around. That was the plan,”he said. “We knew it was their second game in 48 hours and they had to fly to Perth whereas it was our first game in a week. We just had to keep it to within 10 for as long as we could, we thought we’d win the second half. “It was just a matter of if we could actually do it.” Petrik paid tribute to Graham after she held Nicholson to only five points in the second half. Petrik threw her the job of stopping the Flames star because Alex Ciabattoni was struggling with an ankle injury and Atwell is still on the comeback trail from post-season knee surgery. He said Perth couldn’t have won without her effort. “We gave them Tegan,” he smiled. “I thought we guarded okay in patches in the firt half but Nicholson just got away from us completely. “We thought she could guard, but to lock down on Nicholson who is one of the best guards in the competition, I thought Tegan’s performance was brilliant.” The Lynx are now 2-0 and expect Wilson and Gorman to be available to play against Geelong on Saturday.