Spirit remain unbeaten as they extinguish the Flames
Bendigo Spirit’s dream start to the 24/25 Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) season has continued, with the team recording a 71-90 win on the road against the Sydney Flames last night.
The Spirit are setting themselves up for a special season ahead, shattering yet another long-standing team record, with it being the first time since 2009/10 the Spirit have won their first four games of the season – and all by double-figure margins. This is despite still missing Kelsey Griffin and Abbey Wehrung, with Ash Hannan also out for the win in Sydney due to concussion.
In a near replica of Sunday’s win over Geelong, the Spirit came firing out of the blocks, once again led by Sami Whitcomb, who amassed a personal tally of 14 points and two assists in the first term, including a last-second three in what could have arguably been the play of the game.
Building on an 11-point lead at the first change, it was Casey Samuels who led the initiative for the Spirit in the second term, taking the crucial match-up on Sydney captain, Cayla George. Samuels – who would go on to finish the game with 20 points and six rebounds – is arguably in career-best form, having score 15+ point in each game of the season thus far.
Sydney rallied at the main break, and after losing the first two quarters by 11 and nine points respectively, narrowed the gap in the third to only be outscored by two. Shaneice Swain was huge for the hosts, finishing the match as the top-scorer on the court, notching 25 points, along with three rebounds, three assists and a steal.
The Flames went on to outscore the Spirit in the final term by three points, with the young side not laying down and taking it up to the more experienced Spirit line-up.
Bendigo Spirit Head Coach, Kennedy Kereama, said he was pleased with his side’s performance, especially given the number of younger squad members that took to the court.
“The players did an excellent job of executing our game plan…both offensively and defensively,” Kereama saud post-match. “I thought the second half was probably a little more even and balanced, and that’s what we spoke about at half time, just expecting that Sydney would come out and throw some punches.”
“[I’m] really proud of the group,” Kereama continued. “Not that I’m a numbers person, but seeing a lot of players play good minutes – meaningful minutes – and seeing a lot of the players make contributions both offensively and defensively was impressive.”
On the stats sheet, Bendigo scored 29-6 off turnovers, and also had three players in Whitcomb, Samuels, and Player of the Match, Marianna Tolo, score 20+ points.
Whitcomb finished with 23 points – plus six rebounds, five assists and a steal – to now have her average points per game to sit in excess of 25.
Tolo finished the match two rebounds off a double-double, adding 21 points, two assists and two steals to her match stats.
“We’ve had a lot of games now where we’ve scored 90+ points, and I don’t know if I’ve ever been on a team like that,” Tolo said post-match. “It’s really, really cool and very special…”
“I don’t take that for granted, that I have some phenomenal teammates with their ability to score,” Tolo continued. “It’s really nice and I’d like to think that I compliment that too. Kennedy keeps saying to me, ‘keep rolling, because your gravity draws people in and helps the perimeter get open’, so it’s a great combo and I’m really enjoying it so far.”
Next up the Spirit arguably have their biggest challenge of the season thus far, travelling to Townsville to take on the Fire on Saturday night.
Tip-off is at 8.30pm AEDT, with the match broadcast on 9Now.