Flyers too strong for Tasmania

The Southside Melbourne Flyers have delivered an early season lesson to the Tasmania Jewels, with a comprehensive victory bringing the WNBL's newest franchise down to earth with a bump.

Thursday night's 91-77 victory handed the newcomers their first defeat in the competition.

Tasmania came into the clash after an opening-game win over Geelong Venom in front of a sold out Hobart crowd.

But any hopes of building momentum were shut down by the grit of Melbourne's Hannah Hank.

"It was a physical game," Sam Mackinnon said after securing his first win as the Flyers' head coach.

"We spoke about the rebounding war, and the girls embraced that. The girls showed true fighting spirit tonight".

Questions have swirled about Mackinnon's abilities as a first-time A-grade coach and a fired-up Tasmanian team did not provide an easy path to victory.

The Jewels' Stephanie Reid, Darcee Garbin and Mia Jacobs all landed three-pointers in the first quarter.

The Melbourne side missed all four attempts from the arc in the opening term and it gave Tasmania a comfortable 11-point lead.

The Flyers squad has been decried in some quarters as too young and inexperienced to mount a serious challenge, but those theories took a hit when 17-year-old Madison Ryan found the team's first long-range bucket in the second term.

"Even Marianela (Fakalata), she's a 16-year-old that came on in that second quarter, picked up (Stephanie) Reid and got after her," Mackinnon said of his young stars.

But it was Southside Flyers' Hannah Hank and Tess Heal who turned the game on its head with a combined 44 points.

The duo pushed the pace in the third quarter as the squad piled on 29 points at the Victorian State Basketball Centre.

That scoring surge broke the Jewels gameplan, with coach Claudia Brassard admitting her side were second best.

"We had several breakdowns, particularly in that second half, and it kind of cost us the game," she said.

"If you're going to give up 50 points in a half, you're not going to win many games.

"Tess Heal was excellent tonight. So was Hannah Hank, she was a handful for us. We didn't really have an answer for them".