Bendigo Spirit's last play-offs hope burnt by Townsville Fire

Though it was slim, there was still a chance to make the 2022/23 WNBL play-offs if they would have defeated the Townsville Fire during their last home match of the season.

They then would've also needed the Perth Lynx to then lose both of their round 16 matches against the Adelaide Lightning and the UC Capitals.

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However, it wasn't to be as the Fire handed the Spirit a 25-point defeat on Wednesday night at the Red Energy Arena.

By the end of the first quarter the Fire had already shown strong signs of claiming their 11th straight win with a seven-point (21-28) buffer on the scoreboard.

The Fire broke away in the second term to stretch the margin even further out to 12 (34-45) points.

Early during the third term the Spirit lost Abbey Wehrung who left the court after taking a heavy knock to her left shoulder.

Also without co-captain Kelsey Griffin who spent the match watching on the sidelines, the Spirit plowed on in the third but the undefeated Fire were just too strong with the margin now extended out to 25 (72-47).

The match continued with the same momentum in the final term to see the Fire out by 25, final scores 89-64.

Spirit's shooting at 37.3 per cent (25/67) compared to the Fires' 52.8 per cent (38/72) was one of the team's biggest troubles.

Fire also managed to score 26 points from turnovers compared to Spirit's six.

Anneli Maley led the Spirit's scoring with 14 points, three rebounds and one assist.

Next best was Alex Wilson with 12 points, seven rebounds and four assists.

The round 16 match also coincided with the 10th anniversary of the Spirit's 2013 WNBL Championship win over the Fire.

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