Fire starters light it up to flame Perth in heated rematch

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Townsville Fire's starters combined for 96 points.

And the worrying sign? Head coach Shannon Seebohm believes his side are getting better looks on the offensive end than the start of their last championship season but just haven't found their mark from beyond the arc yet.

It didn't matter too much as the Fire won their second straight game with a 99-86 win over last season's Grand Final opponents, the Perth Lynx, at the Townsville Entertainment Centre.

Townsville were once again led by Courtney Woods, who would be the MVP favourite this season, as the star guard fell just short of a triple-double with 24 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds. Abbey Ellis (21 points) and Lauren Jensen (20 points) both passed the 20-point mark while Alex Fowler and Alicia Froling also both reached double figures.

Another worrying sign for the Fire's opponents, they're still without WNBA champion Miela Sowah, who Woods begged to return in her post-game interview.

Seebohm praised his team and Woods in his post-game press conference.

"I think (Woods) is unlucky to not have been the MVP of the league a couple times already," he said.

"I think everyone knows what I think of Courtney as a player and I think she just keeps getting better every year and adds something each off-season to her game and she's an unbelievable player out of the pick and roll sees the floor extremely well and I think you know when she does that obviously the likes of Lauren Jensen, Abbey Ellis, Alicia Froling, Alex Fowler seem to find themselves open and get some good looks.

"She's a massive part of of what we do and why we're able to win games."

Seebohm said he was happy with the looks his team were producing offensively and expected his players to improve their efficiency from the perimeter as the season went on.

"We've got some really good shooters, we haven't shot the ball overly well to start the season to be honest with you and I think we've had probably better quality looks this year than what we had last year," he said.

"I'm not sure what's going on with that but we know that if we get good looks we want to shoot them and I trust our girls to be able to knock those down."

The two-time WNBL championship coach also spoke about the battles between the Fire and the Lynx, who have consistently met in the playoffs over the past six years.

"They're fun games like I think we've played Perth so many times, I've probably been coaching against Ryan (Petrik) for the last six or seven seasons now and every single time we play it's the same," he said.

"They're competitive, they're tight games, they're really fun to watch and be a part of and I think it's just that Perth Lynx's style that kind of brings it out in you and fortunately for us were able to get the win today."

The game wasn't without controversy with Lynx import forward Hayley Peters given a technical foul for reenacting what she thought was a flop by Fowler in the last quarter.

It was an action Petrik didn't mind from Peters.

"I loved what Haley Peters did at the end, like loved it, and I know she got teed up and I think it goes to me because that was her sixth foul, so I think I've got to wear it for her and more than happy to do it because I think she was 100% right," Petrik said.

"We knew what was going (with the foul count) to happen before we came up here and talked about it before we came and then when it happens anyway, it's like we already knew these guys.

"So Townsville were too good and we've got to be better."

Petrik said Perth failed to slow down Townsville's trademark pick-and-roll game, which led to the loss.