THE Bendigo Spirit’s WNBL struggles continued on Friday night as they slumped to a 2-8 record with a 24-point defeat to the Perth Lynx.
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In what was the third meeting of the season between the two clubs, the Lynx were never headed from the moment Natalie Burton scored the opening points of the game to set the visitors on the way to an 83-59 victory at the Bendigo Stadium.
The Spirit’s cause wasn’t helped by import Betnijah Laney being sidelined with concussion following a knock at Thursday training.
The Lynx held sway 22-11 at quarter-time in what was the eighth time in their 10 games this season the Spirit have trailed at the first break as they again struggled to get out of the blocks and were forced to play catch-up.
And the trend of poor third quarters later continued as Perth scored 30 points to 16 – the fourth-straight game where the Spirit have been outscored by double figures in the third term.
The Spirit missed the rebounding power in particular of the injured Kelsey Griffin, with Bendigo allowing the Lynx 22 offensive boards among Perth’s tally of 52.
Gabe Richards – who had been ill the previous two days – did her best to lift the Spirit in the absence of both Griffin and Laney.
Richards was well on the way to a double-double at half-time when she had 10 points and rebounds before ending the game with 14 and 13.
Rachel Banham (11) was the only other Spirit player to score in double figures.
“We again gave up too many points and there just wasn’t enough competition early with rebounds and 50-50 contesting,” Spirit coach Simon Pritchard said.
“We have to play harder and again, there’s too many times where we’re not moving to support each other to make a play.”
One of the positives out of the game for the Spirit was they won the last quarter 15-10 with bench players Ahlise Hurst, Jess Rennie, Maddi Wild, Kara Tessari and Ashleigh Spencer all providing plenty of late energy.
“That was really pleasing to see the young girls play hard and play to plan,” Pritchard said.
The Spirit continues their season on Sunday against Dandneong (4-5) from 2pm in Traralgon.