Tasmania Jewels defend the island

Tasmania have overcome a big early deficit to mark their first WNBL game in Launceston with an outstanding 93-85 victory over previously unbeaten Sydney.

Tasmania improved to 2-1, while Sydney (4-1) dropped to second below Perth (2-0), now the only unbeaten team.

A crowd of just under 2000 relished the historic game, with Jewels top scorer Steph Reid describing the atmosphere at the venue as incredible.

"It was just so much fun, it was electric in there," said Reid, who hit a match-high 17 points.

"A crazy environment, absolutely loved it. "

It was an even scoring effort from the Jewels with all five starters in double figures, notching between 12 and 17 points and two others contributing nine.

American WNBA player Gianna Kneepkens scored 16, Darcee Garbin and Brooke Basham 13 each and Ella Tofaeono 12.

"We have post players who can finish inside and that opens the game up for our guys on the outside and I think we have a really balanced team. We showed that tonight," Jewels coach Claudia Brassard said.

The standout statistic for the Jewels was them committing just six turnovers.

They also restricted the dangerous Flames trio of Lauren Nicholson, Jazmin Shelley and Ally Wilson to just 17 points.

Shelley and Nicholson combined for just four of 19 from the field, with the former fouling out with just over six and a half minutes left and the latter notching three of her 10 points with free throws in the last minute.

Wilson played only nine minutes coming back from an injury and Sydney hit just eight of 31 three-point attempts, but won the rebound count 50-28.

Isabella Bourne was strong early and finished with 16 points, 13 of those coming within the first 11 minutes.

Sydney piled on 16 straight points to lead by 13 in the first quarter, but a couple of Katie Deeble tripes helped slash the gap to nine at quarter time.

The Jewels outscored Sydney 31-16 in the second to lead by six at halftime and captain Garbin hit three triples in the third as they surged to an eight point lead at the last change and they never led by less than six in the fourth.

"They did a really good job with their pressure, especially that second quarter. We turned the ball over a bit and they capitalised on it straight away, whether it was turnovers or early shots,'" Flames coach Renee Garlepp said.

One shining light for the Flames was the productivity off the bench of Agnes Emma-Nnopu, who  scored 16 points at 66 per cent and had three blocks, while Chinese guard Yang Shuyu contributed 14 points.