The Townsville Fire are becoming road warriors this WNBL season improving to top spot despite having not played at home yet handing the Perth Lynx their first defeat, 79-70.

Playing their fourth of five road games to open the season, Townsville improved to 4-1 with a dominant performance at Perth's High Performance Centre with former Lynx guard Miela Sowah scoring a career-best 26 points.

Townsville made a blistering start with the opening eight points before Lauren Cox drained three triples to give them the 26-16 quarter-time edge.

It was a fluctuating second term with the Lynx briefly grabbing the lead after opening up with a 19-4 run only for the Fire to steady with Sowah spectacular with 19 points for her team to be up 44-43 at the half.

Townsville pushed back out to a 12-point lead by three quarter-time having put the clamps on the Lynx who managed just seven points on 3/16 shooting the entire third quarter.

The Fire maintained control the rest of the way for the nine-point win despite only shooting 38 per cent from the field, but they did hold the Lynx to 36 per cent.

Along with Sowah's career-best 26 points with seven rebounds with 4/10 long-range shooting, Alex Fowler had 16 points and nine rebounds for Townsville with Courtney Woods adding 12 points, nine assists and six boards.

Cox finished with 11 points, 12 rebounds and a monstrous seven blocks.

Fire coach Shannon Seebohm was proud of his team's efforts still on the road.

"To come to Perth and get a win, you're always happy with that and they are a great side, and Ryan (Petrik) is a great coach," he said.

"Obviously it's tricky because they are a playing a little differently this year but we're always happy to get a win especially after we had a tough loss the other night against Southside."

Perth came into the game without point guard Alex Ciabattoni with a foot injury and then lost superstar Ally Wilson halfway through the third quarter after taking a hit to the nose that had all the hallmarks of being broken.

The Lynx still kept fighting with Anneli Maley showing the way with 21 points, 14 rebounds, four blocks and two assists.

Tegan Graham added 13 points and two assists, and Brianna Turner 12 points, seven rebounds, five assists, three blocks and two steals.

Petrik always knew it was always going to be tough when Wilson got hurt with Ciabattoni already out.

"We felt a bit rudderless at times and didn’t handle their physicality well at all in the first quarter, but toughened up and played through it fairly well in the second," he said.

"Then obviously the third started to hurt and once we lost Ally we completely lost the rudder so to speak without the two of them.

"We haven't put a playbook in place without our point guards, but glass half full that's the championship favourite at full strength and we hung with them for most of the night without two of our most important players."

Townsville shot out of the blocks early with former Perth guard Miela Sowah scoring the first five points before Alex Fowler gave the visitors the 8-0 advantage.

The Lynx responded with the next six points but the Fire remained on top and were leading 26-17 by quarter-time after Lauren Cox hit the floor and knocked down a trifecta of three-pointers.

Perth started the second period strongly, though, with the opening five points including a three-pointer from Tegan Graham, and then another six straight including four from Brianna Turner to level scores up.

The Lynx soon went on another 8-0 run to grab the lead but the Fire once more responded with the next nine points and by the half-time break they were clinging to the 44-43 advantage.

Early threes in the second half from Alex Fowler and Sowah saw the Fire take back control and they held the Lynx to just seven points on 3/16 shooting in the third quarter to be up 62-50 heading into the fourth.

Even with a late surge to get back within six with 1:47 left when Steph Gorman hit a three ball, the Fire had all the answers to go on to score the nine-point win.

The Fire remain on the road to face the Geelong Venom on Friday before finally playing a first home game of the season next Saturday when they play host to the Adelaide Lightning.

The Lynx remain at home to play host to the Southside Melbourne Flyers on Sunday.

WNBL SEASON 2025/26

PERTH LYNX 70 (Maley 21, Graham 13, Turner 12)

TOWNSVILLE FIRE 79 (Sowah 26, Fowler 16, Woods 12)

BOX SCORE

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Road warriors Townsville go top of WNBL