First road trip to hold no fears for Spirit

BENDIGO Spirit will hit the road this weekend full of confidence and self-belief after surviving a nail-biter against Canberra Capitals last Saturday at Red Energy Arena.

The Spirit will enter this Sunday’s clash against Perth Lynx on a three-game winning streak off the back of a gripping 73-71 victory.

A gritty win was built on another huge performance by star recruit Izzy Borlase and some last minute heroics from co-captain Marianna Tolo.

The Spirit, backing up from a convincing win over Sydney Flames six days earlier, led from the second minute until the Capitals surged to open up a three-point buffer at three-quarter time.

The teams traded baskets in the final quarter, before Tolo stepped up with a buzzer-beating tip in from a rebound to cement the victory with just two seconds to play.

It was an astonishing first game-winning basket by Tolo in a decorated 247 WNBL career, highlighted by five championship wins, including last season’s with the Spirit.

“Who says old dogs can’t learn new tricks,” an ecstatic Tolo, who finished with 10 points and eight rebounds, said post-match.

“I am so proud of our team because we did such a good job to stay in the game, through the resilience, through the toughness Canberra showed, especially late in the last quarter.

“I was so happy to come away with a gritty win like that.”

On a chaotic final few seconds, Tolo added: “We knew they were going to pressure us; they didn’t have any fouls they could give us, so we had to come to the ball still.

“It was chaos, but you just have to stay in the moment and that’s what an offensive rebound at the end does because blocks out are everything in this game.”

After scoring 20 and 26 points in the side’s past two matches, Borlase was again the star for the Spirit with a game-high 25 points, while captain Kelsey Griffin secured a double-double (11 points, 16 rebounds).

The Spirit, who moved to 3-1, were disadvantaged by the absence of reigning WBNL sixth woman of the year Abbey Wehrung, while Casey Samuels (foot) and Micah Simpson (shoulder) also remained sidelined.

Spirit coach Kennedy Kereama was rapt to grind out a gutsy win, but not before some final second, with the Capitals having one last gasp chance to even the scores.

“I looked up at the clock and saw that there was 0.1 of a second left, and Canberra had a time out, and I said, ‘Hey, the game’s not over’,” he said.

“What was most impressive for me was the scoring dried up significantly in the third quarter, but the players continued to back themselves and make good shots.”

Down on personnel, Kereama praised the contributions of his side’s emerging players, singling out Olivia Pollard, who stepped into a starting role and hit two crucial three-pointers, Georgia Booth, Kelsey Rees and Catherine MacGregor.

“If we can continue invest time into our young players and give them opportunities, they are going to continue to reward the team with the types of performances that we saw (on Saturday),” he said.

Sunday’s clash against the Lynx will be the first of two games in three days on the road for the Spirit, who play Adelaide Lightning at the SA State Basketball Centre next Tuesday night.

Co-captain Griffin expected the road trip to hold no fears for the side, particularly having played a full schedule of six pre-season matches away from Bendigo.

“The road can be a great place to bond off the court and to continue to develop our chemistry and will test us in a different way,” she said.

“The amazing things about this group and what I really love about this team is their want to be great; the eagerness with which they want to learn and how they want to do it for one another.

“It’s really rewarding working with the people I’ve got to work with this year.”