The Spirit were thumped 82-63 and now face the Sydney Uni Flames in next Sunday’s preliminary final.

The winner of that game will play Fire in Townsville in the grand final on Sunday, March 8.

For Spirit coach Bernie Harrower, it was the way his side lost the semi-final that hurt most.

“It was not so much that we lost, or by how many we lost by, what I was really disappointed about was the lack of fight.

“We didn’t fight fire with fire, the effort levels were poor and there was no hunger there to get the job done.

“I can handle getting beaten by a better team, but we didn’t show any fight. We dug ourselves a hole and didn’t get out of it.”

The match statistics were horrible reading for the Spirit.

They shot the ball at just 31.8 per cent from the field, lost the rebound count 49-37 and lost the assist tally 20-9.

The Spirit’s guards had an afternoon to forget. Belinda Snell, Kelly Wilson and Heather Oliver combined for 7-34 shooting.

Athletic forward Sara Blicavs got in foul trouble early and sat on the bench for most of the game before scoring 10 points in junk time when the game was over.

If it wasn’t for Kelsey Griffin the Spirit would have been completely humiliated.

Griffin, who tore the Fire apart in the past two WNBL grand finals, kept the Spirit in the game with an outstanding first half.

She had 19 points, six rebounds, three steals and one assist in the first half as the Spirit rallied from a 10-point deficit to grab the lead at the main break.

The first half heroics took their toll on Griffin in the second half and she tired. She finished the game with 21 points, nine rebounds, four steals and two assists.

Townsville dominated in the paint. The Fire outscored the Spirit 38-20 inside, with Gabe Richards restricted to eight points, while Cayla Francis and Suzy Batkovic combined for 32 points and 26 rebounds.

“We had opportunities early in the third quarter, but we missed them and Townsville took over,’’ Harrower said.

“We weren’t knocking down perimeter shots and Townsville were able to clog up the middle. That was our biggest problem. We couldn’t find some consistent shooting to stretch the defence and open up the middle.”

Harrower and his players have six days to regain their hunger.

“Sydney Uni will be full of confidence after winning on Saturday, so it’s going to be very tough,’’Harrower said.

“We need to dig deep and get ourselves back in the right frame of mind. There's no second chances now.”

Sunday’s preliminary final at Bendigo Stadium will start at 3pm.