Spirit mark Griffin, Tolo milestones in style

BENDIGO Spirit made club legend Kelsey Griffin and fellow multiple championship winner Mariana Tolo’s respective 250th WNBL games an occasion to remember with a thumping 29-point win over Perth Lynx in Traralgon last Sunday.

The Spirit held the Lynx to their lowest score in five years, with an 87-58 demolition at the Gippsland Regional Indoor Sports Stadium putting the seal on a milestone day.

A crushing win allowed the 5-2 Spirit to regain second spot on the ladder behind Townsville Fire.

The Lynx crashed to third at 5-3.

While a stirring victory was led by another masterclass by gun recruit Izzy Borlase (26 points, five rebounds, four steals), it was five-time championship winners – most recently with the Spirit last season – Griffin and Tolo who were the centre of attention in their 250th league games.

The star pair were important contributors in a dominant performance by the Spirit, Griffin with seven points and 11 rebounds and Tolo with 10 points and five rebounds.

The co-captains echoed each other sentiments post-game, saying it was a very emotional game.

“My wife started off the morning by surprising me with a video of all of my past teammates and family and everyone sending me a message congratulating me on 250,” said Griffin, whose five WNBL championships includes three with the Spirit.

“(I) got to share the moment with Tolo who – I mean it’s now been very well covered, which I appreciate from the press – that our journeys are very different.

“It took a fateful broken finger to set us on the same track for game record and for her to come back and play another season with Bendigo.

“So it was it was a very special day to play alongside Tolo.

“But I do want to take a moment to talk about my team, because I was just blown away.

“We have so many first year pros on our team, and for them to come out and show out the way they did with the defensive tenacity they played with.

“I’m so, so proud of our group. Like so proud of our group.”

After trailing 20-16 at quarter-time, the Spirit established their ascendancy with a 21-13 second quarter, before blowing the Lynx away with a ruthless 23-10 third quarter.

The Spirit punctuated a proud day for the club and its two inspirational leaders by tipping in 27 points in a commanding final term.

In her second season with the Spirit, Tolo was quick to underline the team aspects of the win.

“It was a really good team show-out,” she said.

“And you know before the game Abbey (Wehrung) said some really lovely words about us and it really touched us to our core.

“So everyone was a bit emotional, and I think you could see by the way everyone turned out tonight that they were doing their best.

And that’s what Kelsey said before the game — ‘All we gotta do out there is fight our hardest that we ever have’ —and that’s exactly what the players did.

“And different people stepped up and had phenomenal games — Georgia (Booth), Megan (McConnell).

“People… that’s what I love about our team. We have so many different talents, so many different threats. Then Izzy comes out week after week and is just amazing herself.

“So it’s such a good group to be a part of because they’re so talented but they’re such good people as well.

“And everyone is in it for the right reasons. Everyone wants to get better and wants to put out the best performance out for each other.”

Borlase’s 26-point game was her fifth from six games this season above 20 points.

Her haul include six triples from 11 attempts.

Import McConnell (12 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals) again shone, while Booth (11 points, four rebounds)

Major factors in the Lynx win the previous weekend over the Spirit in Perth, Amy Atwell and Anneli Maley were held to just nine and eight points respectively in an astonishing defensive display.

Ally Wilson led the visitors with 16 points, seven rebounds, and five assists in 32 minutes.

The Spirit will head to Sydney this weekend for a Friday night clash against the Flames, before returning to host Adelaide Lightning at Red Energy Arena on Sunday.