GREAT players find something extra in the face of adversity.
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Seven days prior to Sunday’s preliminary final against Sydney Uni, Kelly Wilson had a game she’d rather forget in the Bendigo Spirit’s major semi-final loss to Townsville.
Wilson scored four points on 2-13 shooting, including 0-4 from behind the three-point arc. She was outplayed by the Fire’s guards.
On Sunday, Wilson responded in the best possible fashion with a match-winning performance in the Spirit’s 85-77 win.
She scored 32 points on 10-17 shooting, including 5-8 from down town. She also dished out five assists, had a couple of rebounds, a steal and a block.
It was one of the best individual performances by a Spirit player in the club’s short history.
“I’ve struggled all season with consistency with my shot and it really felt like… I probably needed to start making some soon,’’ Wilson said after the win.
“Obviously I scored a few points today, but we are strongest when we have lots of contributors and we need more than two or three players in double figures for us to win.
“We know that and that’s what we’ll focus on this week and next week in Townsville.”
Wilson has always been an elite perimeter shooter, but her new role this season in the absence of Kristi Harrower has made her more of a facilitator.
“I’ve been playing the one (point guard) all season and you need to focus on getting other people the ball, but there were times today when Tessa came in and got me some open looks,’’ Wilson said.
“I had that mentality today that if I was open I was going to shoot it and think that it was going to go in, be positive about it and I was. It worked, so maybe I should do that more often.”
Spirit coach Bernie Harrower agreed.
“The good part from my point of view today was that Kelly was looking for it (her shots),’’ he said.
“I’m critical of her at certain times for not being a scoring threat because she is the ultimate team player, she’s always trying to get the ball to the studs of the team.
“Today she kept trying to score and kept knocking down shots for us. She was fantastic.”
The past two seasons the Spirit haven’t had to play preliminary final weekend in the lead-up to the grand final.
Wilson was confident the extra game this year would be an advantage for the Spirit.
“We know from the past two years winning that semi-final that it’s a really long two weeks to wait for the grand final,’’ she said.
“The anticipation is huge, so us having a game this weekend isn’t such a bad thing. Obviously our form hasn’t been great, so for us to come in with a win is not a bad thing.
“We’ll go into training this week feeling confident that if we play like we can, then we can get the job done.”