Despite the Spirit and Flames being out of finals contention both hit the court with first quarter performances worthy of a finals series.

Buoyed by nine points from Maddie Garrick and other contributions from Carly Boag, Demi Skinner, Anneli Maley and Mary Goulding - the spirit took a narrow three point 20-17 lead into the first break.

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Spirit opened the second quarter with a three-pointer from Garrick, followed by a two-point jump-shot by Boag and another three-pointer to apply the early pressure on the hosts which helped them extend the lead to eight points going into half time, 46-38.

Spirit returned to the court determined in the second half and were able to apply enough pressure on the Flames to extend the margin out to 11 points, 66-55.

Spirit hit the ground running in the final quarter with an opening three-pointer from Skinner to boost the lead to 14 points, before the Flames quickly replied with points from Keely Froling and Morgan Yaeger to reduce the difference back to single digits.

With around three minutes left on the clock and eight points between them, both teams buckled down to end their 2022 seasons with a win.

Sydney started surging with a clean lay-up from Shyla Heal to reduce it to six points before Maley fired back to bring it back to eight points.

It was a matter of maintaining composure in the dying minutes, which the Spirit did to seal the match 85-73.

Garrick top-scored for the Spirit with a mammoth 32 points, five rebounds and one steal.

Next up was Carly Boag with 16 points, three rebounds, two assists, two blocks and two steals.

Garrick praised her team for the never-say-die win over the Flames.

"We knew it was going to be a fight to finish off the season with a win...it shows that we've really improved this season and I couldn't be more happy of the girls," she said.

Even though they were out of finals contention heading into the game, the Spirit set out to ensure they secured fifth on the ladder.

"Our losses earlier in the season didn't help but we were able to cement our goal of fifth on the ladder."

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