THE Australia Pork Bendigo Spirit basketball stars again showed their fighting qualities in Saturday night's three-point victory against Townsville Fire.

An exciting battle between two of the WNBL's greatest rivals at Bendigo Stadium went into overtime.

A calf injury meant Spirit was without gun centre and Australian Opal Gabe Richards for the clash with a line-up which rolled into town on a 5-1 record.

In a frantic start, Bendigo raced to a 13-4 lead in just over three minutes.

A Belinda Snell three-pointer was follwed by consecutive three-point plays by Kelsey Griffin as Townsville felt the heat from strong defensive play.

Spirit coach Bernie Harrower said a key was always going to be "double-teaming" Townsville centre Suzy Batkovic.

The second half of the opening term was to be Townsville's time to turn up the heat.

A Mia Newley three-pointer put Fire within five at just over two minutes to play in the first term.

The stanza ended in a basket-for-basket run as Bendigo lead 27-23 at quarter-time.

Defence was on top for a lot of the next term.

Excellent teamwork in the key by Spirit's Tayla Roberts and Kelsey Griffin ended with another two by Griffin.

Up by three going into the last minute, Spirit seized the momentum.

A Snell steal in mid-court ended with two points by Taylor.

Heather Oliver intercepted the inbound pass on the next play and scored another two as Bendigo led 47-40 at half-time.

The margin was held until midway through the third term when Fire went on a seven-nil run through Newley (5) and Batkovic (2) to lock up scores on 54-all.

Another two by Batkovic put Fire in front for the first time, but Spirit replied quickly with two by Snell to lead 57-56 at three quarter-time.

Fire led by four at 2.55 to play in the the fourth term.

Kelly Wilson added two under immense pressure.

When Griffin charged into the key and scored two more it was 66-all at 37 seconds to go.

Fire skipper Rachael McCully (2) was on target.

The classy Wilson levelled the game once again at six seconds on the clock.

Fire had a shot at one second to go in regular time, but it missed.

Bendigo won the five-minute overtime, 10-7 as Blicavs (2), Wilson (3), Aubry (3) and Kristi Harrower (2) were on target to clinch a 78-75 victory.

Spirit coach Bernie Harrower said it was a "sensational effort" to win such a high-stakes match.

"There was a lot riding on this game in terms of head-to-head record. Any match without Gabe is always to be a great challenge, especially against such a tall team."

Townsville tipped off the season by winning at home against Bendigo.

Harrower said there were great passages of play, but also some patches of poor basketball.

"It's fantastic to have won, but we know there are parts of our game that we must work on," he said ahead of next Saturday afternoon's home game against Melbourne.

The Spirit's MVP award went to Kelsey Griffin, 24 points and nine rebounds. Eight of those rebounds were won in defence.

Points - Bendigo: Griffin 24, Blicavs 13, Wilson 12, Snell 11, Aubry 5, Maddie Garrick 5, Roberts 4, Harrower 2, Oliver 2.  Townsville: Batkovic 17, Newley 13, Cocks 12, Cumming 11, Francis 8, McCully 8.