Rare triple-double sees Whitcomb lead Spirit to 8th straight win
Bendigo Spirit have come out on top in the latest top-of-the-table Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) clash, defeating the second-ranked Perth Lynx by six points at Perth’s Bendat Basketball Centre.
In the battle of the SEN-owned teams, it was the Spirit who kept their incredible winning streak alive, who now sit clearly atop the WNBL standings – undefeated – with eight straight wins. However, it was a tough assignment for the Spirit, with their opponents not only having the home court advantage, but the Lynx were also buoyed by their co-captain, Amy Atwell, returning to the side for the first time this 24/25 season. Atwell’s inclusion also meant that the Lynx had four Paris Olympians in their line up – an imposing prospect for any opponent.
It was a rollercoaster of a game, with 11 lead changes throughout the game. Both teams were neck and neck throughout the first term, before the Spirit pulled away ever-so-slightly at the first change, leading the hosts; 17 to 14.
The Lynx then asserted their dominance in the second term winning it 21 to 15, to flip the script and now give the home side a narrow three-point lead at the main break.
Whilst the third term was set to a similar script – the Lynx winning the term by three to extend their lead to six heading into the last term – the Spirit went on to have a massive final quarter. Despite the Lynx stretching their lead our to eight points early, the experienced Spirit outfit reigned them back in, astonishingly winning the term by 12 (25 to 13) to see the final score read 72 to 66 in the Spirit’s favour.
Unsurprisingly, the Spirit’s final quarter assault was led by Sami Whitcomb, who went on to score a rare triple-double (16 points, 10 assists, 13 rebounds and a steal) – her first in the WNBL – despite some heavy attention from the opposition throughout the night.
In her second game back from injury, Spirit captain, Kelsey Griffin, top-scored for her side with 17 points, along with 7 rebounds, 3 steals and an assist. Marianna Tolo (14 points) and Casey Samuels (11) also notched double figures on the scoreboard for the Spirit, whilst Veronica Burton amassed a massive 11 rebounds.
For the Lynx, Miela Sowah was the standout. As the top-scoring player on the count she notched 25 points, as well as adding 6 rebounds and 5 assists to the stats sheet. Canadian international, Laeticia Amihere, also chimed in with a double-double of her own for the Lynx (16 points, 11 rebounds, 2 blocks, an assist and a steal) while co-captain, Anneli Maley had a huge 15 rebounds.
Post-match Bendigo Spirit head coach, Kennedy Kereama, was visibly buoyed by his team’s win.
“Having a conversation with Ryan [Perth Lynx head coach, Ryan Petrik] very briefly post-game, we both agreed it was an incredibly difficult game as far as the arm wrestle between how we wanted to play versus how the Lynx wanted to play. [I’m] Really happy that we came out on top on this occasion, [and] really happy with how we approached the second half form our perspective, just the level of execution and just the small details such as hitting screens and being able to go at certain match ups, but also playing long-winded offence,” Kereama said.
“I know from a spectator’s perspective, everyone wants to see high-scoring basketball and that’s certainly in most situations conducive with winning, but when you’re trying to play the lengths you’ve really got to do a good job at trying to slow the game down and we did a good job of that in patches tonight,” he continued. “We’ll look at it with a pretty critical lens and try and find ways to be better next time.”
The Spirt will now return to Bendigo and prepare for their Round 7 home match against the Townsville Fire.
Tip-off for the match at Red Energy Arena on Saturday 14 December will be at 5pm AEDT, with tickets now available via Ticketek.