While the victory was the most pleasing part of the story for Harrower,  there were a couple of sub-plots  that left the veteran coach with a broad smile on his face.

The first was the form of Kelly Wilson, who produced her best game in her new role as starting point guard.

An Achilles injury forced Wilson to miss the start of the season and it took her a few games to find her groove, but she produced in spades on Saturday, with 12 points, nine assists and four rebounds.

“I was really pleased for Kelly,’’ Harrower said.

“She did a great job for us. The 12 points and nine assists were great, but it was the way she looked after the ball that pleased me the most.

“In the previous couple of games she’d had some troubles with turnovers, but this game she was great.

“She’s starting to look settled in the point guard role… she’s getting better each week.”

The second pleasing sub-plot for Harrower was Chelsea Aubry’s performance.

With Sara Blicavs and Gabe Richards in foul trouble in the first half, Harrower turned to Aubry for big minutes and she didn’t let her coach down, scoring 10 points on 5-8 shooting.

“Chelsea didn’t play great the last time we played Melbourne, but she bounced back well this game,’’ Harrower said. “She made some big plays for us at crucial times.”

The Spirit looked like surging away to an easy win when they opened up a 16-point lead late in the third quarter.

However, the Boomers, who were chasing a seventh-straight win,  dug deep and went on a 16-4 run either side of the three quarter-time break to close to within four points with six minutes remaining in the game.

To the Spirit’s credit they didn’t panic. They lifted their defensive intensity and kept the Boomers scoreless for the rest of the match to run out 12-point winners.

Belinda Snell continued her great form for the Spirit to lead all scorers with 22 points. She also grabbed 11 rebounds.

Kelsey Griffin was arguably the game MVP. The power forward had 20 points, 13 rebounds and three steals.

“Kelsey’s form in the past few games has probably flown under the radar because Snelly has played so well,’’ Harrower said.

“Kelsey was huge for us again, particularly her rebounding.”

The win consolidated second place on the ladder for the Spirit ahead of this Friday’s home game against fourth-placed Sydney Uni Flames.

“Beating Melbourne was a big win for us because if we had have lost we would have been back in the pack with them and Sydney,’’ Harrower said.

 “If we can beat Sydney this week then we’ll go into the break in a good position.”

WNBL ladder: Townsville 9-2, Bendigo 9-3, Melbourne 8-6, Sydney Uni 6-5, Dandenong 5-7, Canberra 4-6, West Coast 4-7, Adelaide 2-10.