The Bendigo Spirit slumped to the heaviest defeat in club history on Thursday night.
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The 86-42 loss to WNBL championship contender the Melbourne Boomers surpassed the 41-point defeat to Perth last season.
The Spirit’s total of 42 points was the lowest score in club history – one point less than the 43 points scored against Canberra in 2010-11.
The Spirit have been cut some slack this year because of the season-ending injury to Kelsey Griffin, but there’s more to the Spirit’s problems than just Griffin’s absence.
Thursday night was the sixth time this season the Spirit have lost by more than 20 points.
They were totally outplayed by a dominant Boomers outfit. The gulf in class and depth was huge.
Gabe Richards, Betnijah Laney and Nadeen Payne scored 38 of the Spirit’s 42 points. The rest of the squad was 2-23 from the field.
The Boomers could have won by 50 points plus if coach Guy Molloy wanted to.
Liz Cambage (11 points), Rebecca Cole (15 points) and Maddie Garrick (12 points) only played half a game each.
Jenna O’Hea led the Boomers with 18 points, four rebounds and six assists.
The Spirit now face another WNBL championship contender – Townsville Fire – at Bendigo Stadium on Saturday night.
The last time the two clubs met the Fire won by 35 points.