BENDIGO Spirit guard Kerryn Harrington has labelled the club's season as far from disappointing despite missing finals for the first time in four seasons.
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The former Australian under 19 representative said the team had shown it could match it with the league's big guns and believed it was only a matter of time before things clicked under reappointed coach Simon Pritchard.
Harrington said players had spoken about their propensity to save their best basketball for the best teams immediately after their final round loss to Canberra.
"That gives us a lot of hope for the future that if we can replicate those sorts of performances against teams that we should beat then we are right amongst it," the winner of this year's Spirit Coaches Award said.
"It's disappointing, but it's something we have identified, that we seem to play our best basketball when our backs are against the wall.
"I think as a group we played well in more patches than we didn't play well.
As the WNBL finals enter a second week, only three teams remain in the championship hunt.
Townsville will do battle with South East Queensland this weekend for the right to challenge Perth in this year's grand finals series.
The irony is not lost on Harrington and her teammates that the Spirit went 6-3 in games played against those teams in 2015-16, but only 3-5 against bottom three clubs Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra.
Included were two wins on the road against Townsville and one each in Perth and Brisbane.
Harrington said greater strides had been made off the court during the season.
"While we didn't make finals this year we've had a lot of success elsewhere, especially off the floor with our community involvement and support,” she said.
Harrington enjoyed a splendid season, her first with the Spirit since the club's inaugural year in 2008-09.
The 24-year-old averaged 7 points and nearly 2 rebounds per game.
She notched a career-high 18 points during a December clash against her former club Adelaide.
While there is hurt associated missing finals, Harrington was confident the club was building well for the future.
"We've learned a hell of a lot going forward, with Simon and the new coaching staff coming in, and being able to build on the things they were trying to implement," she said.
