Basketball On The Internet.

PERTH Lynx are one win away from claiming only the club's second WNBL championship and first since women's basketball legends Tom Maher, Michele Timms and Robyn Maher orchestrated their 1992 crown, after Amy Atwell and crew today blew Southside off its home Melbourne floor 101-79. 

From top-to-toe or tip-to-siren, Perth was by far the better team and not just by a little bit, Atwell leading the wall-to-wall blitzing with nine 3-point makes, the second most in league history.

In Game 1. Of a Grand Final Series. On the road!

Southside was helpless to stall the inevitable, Atwell opening the championship series with a threeball, Miela Goodchild with consecutive buckets and Anneli Maley another for a 9-0 start the Flyers never caught.

Megastar Lauren Jackson finally broke the drought for Southside at the 6:34 mark but it only led to triples by Aari McDonald and Maley for a 15-2 Lynx cushion.

The Flyers managed to eke it back to 16-26 at the first break but Perth already had buried six 3-pointers, Atwell with half of them.

The bombardment only worsened for the shellshocked Flyers in the second as Atwell, virtually unconscious from long range, knocked down four more 3-pointers, Maley with a pair and Steph Gorman two more to go with one in the first period. 

Ahead a whopping 60-37 at halftime, only the arrival of the apocalypse could save Southside, Atwell with 22 first-half points, the Lynx splashing 14 triples by the interval.

Jackson, Mercedes Russell and Maddi Rocci opened the third with a 9-0 run, breathing life in to the crowd, trailing 46-60.

Then Atwell struck a 3-pointer and the resistance was stymied, Alex Ciabattoni's 3-pointer making it 70-48. Then it was Mackenzie Clinch Hoychard's turn to join the unrelenting missile strike with a couple as the lead blew on to 82-53, Ryan Petrik's charges running on adrenaline, Flyers coach Cheryl Chambers lost for a solution.

Three straight 3-point swishes by Jackson sliced Perth's lead back to 20 to start the final quarter, Flyers showing flickering signs of life.

Ciabattoni with a basket followed by a triple snuffed that out quickly, a three and a two from McDonald and a free throw from Emily Potter blowing it back out 93-62, the Flyers fried.

If it is even possible, in the end the 101-79 scoreline flattered Southside who were humiliated in their own living room, the Lynx stroking 22-of-38 threes!

How amazing is that? Well the Lynx were actually 15-of-38 from two-point range!

Atwell with 30 points on 9-of-14 shooting from outside the arc, was the architect but Gorman was 3-of-3, Clinch Hoychard 2-of-2, Ciabattoni 2-of-3, Maley 3-of-5, McDonald 2-of-7 and Chloe Forster 1-of-2. 

Thursday's Game 2 at the sold-out Bendat Basketball Centre in Perth cannot come soon enough.

WNBL Grand Final Series (Best-of-3)

Game 1: PERTH LYNX 101 (Atwell 30, Maley, McDonald 15, Ciabattoni 12; Potter 10 rebs; McDonald 10 assts) d SOUTHSIDE FLYERS 79 (Jackson 21, Ernst 13, Russell 12; Rocci 9 rebs; Mitchell 6 assts) at Melbourne Sports Centres. Crowd: 2,356