In a match that failed to reach any great heights as a spectacle, the Capitals were never headed from midway through the first quarter on the way to a 65-51 victory.

For the Spirit, its score of 51 was its lowest in the 25 WNBL matches it has now played, surpassing the 57 it scored against Dandenong on December 2, last season.

The Spirit had no answer to the height of the Capitals, who convincingly won the rebound count 48-29, and scored 36 points in the paint to Bendigo’s 18.

Bendigo played without star point guard Kristi Harrower, who is still to be cleared from Russian club UMMC Ekaterinburg.

“There were certainly some good signs there, but we played typical of a side not in sync,’’ Spirit coach Bernie Harrower said.

“We’ve only been together for four weeks and that certainly showed tonight.

“But in saying that, we played against the benchmark of the competition and it was always going to be difficult.

“We gave ourselves chances, but not knocking down foul shots and missing close to the basket certainly hurt us.’’

The Spirit made just 14-of-25 free throws, which cost Bendigo the chance to apply scoreboard pressure to the Capitals.

Bendigo trailed 40-28 at half-time, having earlier been behind by nine at quarter-time.

The Spirit closed the gap to six with 7:07 remaining in the third quarter, but that would be as close as it got for the rest of the game.

The Capitals’ lead blew out to as many as 17 points after they opened the final quarter with a 9-1 run to put an end to the contest, before the Spirit fought the game out well to cut the final deficit to 14.

“I thought when we played with instructions, which was generally straight after breaks or time-outs, we were all right,’’ Harrower said.

“But as the quarters went on and we got a little bit fatigued, we would lose our way and Canberra would finish off the stronger to get its lead back out again.