Spirit go down to Caps to cap off regular season
Bendigo Spirit have suffered a loss to finish the 2024/25 Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) regular season, going down to the UC Capitals at Canberra’s AIS Arena; 83-74.
The Caps handed the Spirit just their third loss of the 21-game regular season, in a match that had no bearing on finals – the Spirit secured top spot on the ladder after their Round 14 win over Geelong United, whilst the Caps finals hopes were crushed in Round 15 after a disappointing loss to the Sydney Flames.
The Spirit were without Casey Samuels, who stayed home in Bendigo as a precaution due to a small knew issue, to prepare for a big playoffs series. Besides Samuels’ omission, the Spirit went into the game with a business-as-usual attitude – if the had the opportunity to rotate and rest players ahead of a big playoffs series they would take it, but the ultimate goal was to win.
Although the Spirit had already won the series matchup between the two teams, with two wins against the Caps earlier in the season both at home and away, the teams hadn’t faced off since Round 5, with the young Caps side having improved a lot since November. The Caps got off to a hot start, dashing out to a 7-0 lead. In fact, the Spirit didn’t hit the scoreboard until almost two minutes into the first term, thanks to a trademark three from Sami Whitcomb.
Arguably once of the League’s best players off the bench this season, Abbey Wehrung then brought some life into the game for the Spirit, when she was injected into play with three-and-a-half minutes gone in the first term, with a three straight off the bench as she so often does. The Spirit looked a little lethargic, however, compared to the fast-paced game being played by the young Caps team, and the score was all locked up at quarter time; 17 all.
This was the story for a lot of the match – the Caps were hungry to give their home fans something to cheer about, and with nothing to lose, they played with a sense of youthful agility and freedom. They were also keen to give WNBL legend, Abby Bishop, a fitting send off – after announcing her retirement from professional basketball at the end of 2024, Bishop returned to the Caps line-up as an injury replacement player to see out the 2024/25 season.
In a potentially worrying sign for the Spirit, they didn’t win a quarter of the match for the first time this season. After drawing level in the first term, the Caps won the second – 22-21 – to take a narrow one-point lead into the main break. The third term was also even, with both teams scoring 21 points apiece, meaning the Caps held their lead by a singular point going into the final term. However, the home side really dominated the fourth term, pulling away to win the term 23-15, to notch the nine-point win.
After a disappointing game the week before in her side’s loss to Sydney (where she was held to just four points), Caps captain, Jade Melbourne, played an unbelievable game. On triple-double watch for much of the match, Melbourne produced a scintillating Player of the Game performance, finishing with a massive 40 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals and a block to her name.
For the Spirit, it was the relentlessness of Veronica Burton and Whitcomb that kept their side in the contest all day. Burton finished with 29 points, 7 assists, 3 rebounds, 3 blocks and a steal, whilst Whitcomb had 11 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals.
Despite the loss, the Spirit still had four players score in double figures – again highlighting their incredible depth – with captain Kelsey Griffin (notching yet another double-double for the season – 11 points, 10 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks and an assist), and Marianna Tolo (10 points, 3 rebounds, 2 blocks and an assist) joining Burton and Whitcomb.
However, two stats that didn’t look so pretty for the Spirit were their rebounds (they had 27 to the Caps 45), and their percentage shooting from the charity stripe (the Spirit shot at 66.7%, compared to the Caps 89.5%), something head coach, Kennedy Kereama, will no doubt want to address before next week.
Post-match, Kereama said that while the loss was disappointing, but it was a result of a great game of basketball played by the Caps.
“The Caps were great today,” Kereama reiterated. “They’ve been playing the right brand of basketball all season long and sometimes the results just don’t go your way, but today, the momentum and execution…[they] probably had the right combination today which put us on the wrong end of the result.”
“From our perspective, tough games are important,” Kereama continued. “Not to sound defeatist, but the Caps were great today, Jade was very good today, [and] if we’re going to lose a game – we’d prefer not to, but it’s probably best to drop one now.”
“Whatever happened [in today’s game], we were going to have a really close look at it [heading into next week]. It’s a good opportunity for us to take away some learnings and be better for game 1 against Sydney.”
It’s a big week coming up for the Spirit, who will attend the WNBL Awards Night in Melbourne on Monday (February 17), followed by their own club Awards Night in Bendigo on Thursday (February 20), before they take to the court back at Red Energy Arena on Sunday (February 23) for their first game of the playoffs against the Sydney Flames.
Tickets for Game 1 of the semi-final series with the Flames will be released for sale via Ticketek at 12pm AEDT, Monday 17 February.