THE Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) schedule for Round 13 continued into Sunday, with just the one match taking place for the day. This was a clash between the Melbourne Boomers and the Bendigo Spirit at the Melbourne Sports Centre in Parkville, with the home side entering this clash expected to claim the win.

However, the script was flipped in the end, as Bendigo came out and produced a strong performance on the road. They were terrific in the second period as they took a narrow lead into the main break. In the second half, the action continued to be tense, as the Boomers mounted quite the comeback in the closing minutes of the game. This effort fell short, as Bendigo held on to claim a stirring three-point victory, their sixth of the season.

HOW IT UNFOLDED

The match opened with some entertaining back-and-forth action, as the two teams traded baskets in the first quarter of play. The Spirit trailed by three points at quarter-time, as the Boomers looked dangerously close to breaking away in the minutes that followed. This never ended up happening, with the visiting side rallying in the second half of the second period behind the scoring efforts of Tessa Lavey, as they managed to turn their deficit into a two-point advantage. Scoring decreased in the third term, but the Spirit still managed to keep a nose ahead of their opponents in this time. The lead was extended to four heading into the final term, as Bendigo looked to put the game away early. Things got interesting in the closing stages of the contest, when the Boomers brought the margin down from 11 to three points, but Bendigo was able to hold on and claim quite the upset victory.

TEAM STATS

The Spirit were excellent in the shooting figures, outperforming their opponents in this area in a big way. They made over half of their shots from two-point territory, and were the more efficient team from behind the arc too. One area that let them down a bit was their shooting from the charity stripe, as they wasted a fair few opportunities from here. However, this did not prove to be too much of an issue, as their work in other categories managed to get them over the line. They were also able to share the ball with ease, and this resulted in a number of wide open looks, which proved to be a match-winning formula.

TOP POINTS SCORERS

The Spirit were well led by the efforts of Maley, who recorded a double-double in her side’s victory. She finished with 17 points, 15 boards and four assists in a towering performance, as she proved dominant from inside the arc, sinking six shots from this area. As mentioned above, Lavey was impactful with ball in hand as she made her way to 16 points. On a day when her team struggled a bit from behind the arc, she managed to still prove damaging, sinking three shots from deep.