After the No. 1 seed Townsville Fire secured an 84-74 win over the No. 4 seed Southside Melbourne Flyers in a decisive WNBL Semifinal game on Feb. 22 to send them to the Championship Series, the impactful contributions of former Iowa women’s basketball star and current Washington Mystics guard Lucy Olsen could be what pushes the club to its fifth league title.
Although Townsville boasts one of the strongest guard rotations in the league with All-WNBL First Team member Courtney Woods, Second Team member Miela Sowah, and 2025 Breakout Player of the Year Abbey Ellis headlining the starting lineup, Fire head coach Shannon Seebobm believes the former Hawkeye fan-favorite, Lucy Olsen, will be the club’s X-factor when they face the No. 2 seed Perth Lynx for the fight to claim the 2025 WNBL title.
“I actually think Lucy Olsen is the X factor for us,” the five-time Coach of the Year said in his postgame media availability after Townsville’s Feb. 22 win over Southside Melbourne.
“She’s come out and obviously had a quiet offensive series here against Southside, but we know she can definitely score the ball, make big shots, and she’s a big game player coming from Iowa and playing in front of massive crowds and all these things in college.”
Despite having a relatively quiet series against the Flyers, Olsen’s production off the bench has been crucial to Townsville’s success all season. Averaging 8.7 points on 36.8% shooting, 32.0% from 3-point range, and 88.6% from the free-throw line, to go along with 3.4 assists, 2.5 rebounds, 1.1 steals, and 0.2 blocks per game throughout the season, she was awarded the Sixth Woman of the Year honor, as the league’s best bench option.
Having competed in front of large, energetic crowds at both Iowa’s Carver-Hawkeye Arena and Villanova’s Finneran Pavilion during her NCAA career, Olsen certainly knows how to play in big games with high-stakes on the line.
Seebobm believes Olsen’s experience in those pressure moments will be crucial to Townsville winning their second Championship in three years and their fifth overall.
“She’s going to be ready for this moment. I think her defence has improved a lot as this season’s gone, and she was extremely tough out there for us today and in games one and two. So I think Lucy’s going to be an X-factor for us.”
Game 1 of the best-of-three 2026 WNBL Championship Series between the Townsville Fire and Perth Lynx is scheduled to tip off from the Townsville Entertainment Centre on Thursday, Feb. 26, at 3 a.m. CT.
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This article originally appeared on Hawkeyes Wire: Is Lucy Olsen the Townsville Fire’s WNBL Championship Series X-factor?
Reporting by Scout Springgate, Hawkeyes Wire / Hawkeyes Wire
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