The Spirit will face the championship favourites this Saturday without their star import Becca Tobin, who has returned to the United States to deal with a ‘family emergency’.

The Spirit announced the news on its social media accounts on Monday.

“The Bendigo Bank Spirit want to acknowledge the great season Becca has played and express the joy she has given fans, players and staff with an exciting style of play we got to see week after week,” the statement said.

“ Tobin is a great teammate that we hope to one day see back in Bendigo.

“She is a player who will sacrifice her own points for the team result. Becca took us by surprise by her dynamic perimeter defence that gave us great flexibility in ball screen situations, which  all stemmed from the effort she brought to training day-in-day-out.

“More importantly, Becca has had a profound impact on our Spirit community through clinics, programs and individual coaching of our future stars.

“We wish Becca and her family all the very best and hope to see her again in the future.”

The former Arizona State college star has been one of the finds of the WNBL season.

Tobin leads the Spirit in rebounds (9.05 per game), steals (1.5), blocks (1.45) and field goal percentage (51 per cent) and ranks second in scoring at 11.35 points per game behind only Nadeen Payne (14.05).

The Capitals head to Bendigo on the back of eight-straight wins, which has helped them clinch home-court advantage throughout the finals.

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