THE Bendigo Bank Spirit will head into the WNBL mid-season break on the back of consecutive losses at home after suffering a three-point defeat to the Sydney Uni Flames on Friday night.
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In a clash of two top-four teams at the Bendigo Stadium, the Flames prevailed 67-64.
Friday night’s defeat for the Spirit followed their 70-65 loss to the Melbourne Boomers the previous week.
The Spirit surrendered a 10-point lead midway through the second quarter after they had held a 27-17 advantage.
However, in what was a low-scoring first half, the Flames ended the second term on a 12-2 run, with Sydney’s Joslyn Tinkle leveling the scores 29 apiece at half-time with a three-pointer.
In a poor-shooting first half, both sides combined for just 21-of-70 from the field.
The two sides jostled for the ascendancy during the third quarter until the Flames were able to pull away late.
The Flames scored the last six points of the third quarter through a pair of threes to teenager Tahlia Tupaea and Tinkle again to take a 56-48 lead into the final term.
The Flames grew their advantage to as many as 10 points in the last quarter, but with a determined Kelsey Griffin leading the way, the Spirit wouldn’t relent.
When Griffin nailed a three-pointer under pressure to take her tally of points in the last quarter to 10, the Spirit were back within three points with 26.3 seconds to go.
Following a time-out, the Flames’ Hayley Moffatt was unable to inbound the ball back into play within five seconds and the Spirit regained possession, with a last-ditch chance to force the game into overtime.
However, Belinda Snell’s three-point shot was blocked, only for Kelly Wilson to swoop onto the loose ball and launch a three-point shot with two seconds to go that missed in the final play of the game.
For the Spirit, Griffin scored a game-high 24 points – including 18 in the second half – to go with a game-high 12 rebounds.
Snell added 15 points and Wilson 11 for the Spirit, who were effective from the free-throw line in making 16-of-18 shots.
One of the differences between the sides was the offensive output from the bench – the Flames scoring 15 points to the Spirit’s two.
The defeat leaves the Spirit with a 9-7 record.
The Spirit’s season will resume on Saturday, January 2 against the Canberra Capitals at the Bendigo Stadium.
