Basketball On The Internet.

MELBOURNE Boomers and Southside Flyers got out of jail scot free and Bendigo Spirit, even under duress, won its first game of the WNBL season. Frankly, those results only made coming up with this week's WNBL Team of the Week for Round 4 more difficult than usual.

Southside, with Bec Cole, Mercedes Russell and Lauren Jackson leading the way, recovered from a 21-point deficit to beat Perth at home in a thriller.

That started the round ... Melbourne surviving overtime after having to force the five-minute extension on its last regulation offence against Canberra is where it ended.

In between, the playoff aspirations of Perth and Adelaide suffered major blows and question marks hover over Sydney when the Flames - with Tess Madgen in the lineup alongside reigning league MVP Cayla George and 2023 championship-winner Lauren Nicholson - stumbled in Bendigo.

Bear in mind Kelsey Griffin, who made the Spirit look awesome last week against Melbourne, was a game-day withdrawal, further opening the door for the Flames, who did build a double-digit lead.

It just wasn't enough to resist Kennedy Kereama's motivated crew, which not only won, but won big!

Naz Hillmon produced a career-game for Melbourne, with great assists from Keely Froling and Jordin Canada to finally see off Canberra in Traralgon.

The fact the last-placed team took the first-placed team to overtime speaks volumes for where the competition is at this season. 

Still, going on the road to endure the "Doomsday Double" of facing the Lightning in Adelaide, then the Lynx in Perth is a pretty challenging trip.

Adelaide was coming off a home win over the Flyers and Perth was looking to salvage its record after dropping its first game of the season at Southside by two.

So for Townsville, this was the defending champion - a narrow loser to that same Southside - very much under the microscope.

To then shut down Adelaide 74-51, bursting from the blocks with a match-winning 27-14 first quarter, was a major coup for Shannon Seebohm's crew.

The Fire led from start to finish and had seven players scoring between seven and 19 points. Talk about coming at you from every angle!

We've been predicting a breakout season for a healthy Zitina Aokuso and she delivered on that with 18 points, eight rebounds and three assists as Townsville blitzed the Lynx 92-76.

Returning to her adopted home and former club Perth, Sami Whitcomb went off for 11 points, six rebounds, eight assists and two steals as the Fire this time had six players scoring between 10 and 18 points.

The Fire are back in business and therefore claim our WNBL Round 4 "Team of the Week" accolade.

BASKETBALL ON THE INTERNET WNBL TEAM OF THE WEEK

Round 4  Townsville Fire
Round 3  Adelaide Lightning
Round 2  Melbourne Boomers
Round 1  Perth Lynx