THE Bendigo Spirit produced their best defensive effort of the season to defeat the Dandenong Rangers at home in the WNBL on Thursday night.
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The Spirit gave up just 47 points as they snapped their five-game losing streak with a 64-47 victory.
Bendigo had started the last quarter trailing by one point, but completely strangled the Rangers in the final term as it almost held Dandenong scoreless.
Dandenong’s only two points of the final quarter were the last of the match and came with 18 seconds remaining through a lay-up to Taylah Giliam.
Down the other end the Spirit added 20 last-quarter points, but it was their defensive work that was the standout feature of the final term.
The Spirit allowed the Rangers to shoot just 1-of-17 from the field in the last quarter and played with a defensive intensity that has been rarely seen this season.
It was just the 10th time in the Spirit’s 259-game history they have held an opposition to less than 50 points and came after Dandenong had earlier gone on a 13-0 tear during the second quarter to turn a 30-20 deficit into a 33-32 lead at half-time.
Four of the Spirit’s starters scored in double figures – Rachel Banham (16), Nadeen Payne (16), Betnijah Laney (15) and Gabe Rchards (13, and 10 rebounds).
The Spirit are now 4-14.
