WIN and leave nothing to chance - that's the mindset of the Bendigo Spirit, which now sits on the cusp of its first WNBL finals berth for nine years.
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Riding a five-game winning streak the Spirit are the hottest team in the WNBL entering the final weekend of the regular season.
On the back of their five wins in a row over Perth (95-74), Canberra (93-75), Melbourne (80-70), Canberra (85-77) and Townsville (93-60) the Spirit have climbed from sixth to third on the ladder and now have their finals destiny in their own hands.
The Spirit close out their regular season at Red Energy Arena on Saturday night against the Perth Lynx.
The WNBL is set for a thrilling finale to its regular season with only two of its eight teams - Adelaide and Canberra - out of finals contention.
For the Spirit, it's a simple case of win and they stay third on the ladder.
Lose though and it opens up the possibility that they could potentially tumble as low as sixth, which is why there's the leave nothing to chance mindset ahead of Saturday night.
Such is the congested nature of the WNBL ladder with top two sides Southside and Townsville both sharing identical records of 13-7, plus Bendigo, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth all separated by just one win from third to sixth, there are 32 different possible final ladder combinations.
"All we're thinking is we've just got to win the game on Saturday night and the reality is we don't see ourselves playing finals if we don't win, so that's what we're setting ourselves for," Spirit coach Kennedy Kereama said on Friday.
"We've got our finals destiny in our own hands and it's up to us to take care of business."
It shapes as a fiercely contested game in Bendigo on Saturday night given both the Spirit and Lynx are among the group of four teams vieing for the last two vacancies in the finals.
The Spirit and Lynx have met twice this season with the ledger split one apiece.
Bendigo carries in the momentum of its best win of the season last Sunday when it thumped what had been the top side in the competition, Townsville, by 33 points.
The Spirit head into Saturday night 11-9 for the season - a record that had one stage been 0-4.
"The team has further embraced their roles as the season has gone on and are playing their roles to the best of their ability," Kereama said.
"It has been about putting the ball in Kelsey Griffin's hands more, Alex Wilson's hands more, letting Kelly Wilson orchestrate what that looks like with her experience, spacing the floor with our best shooters and players coming off the bench and playing their roles to great effect.
"We've continued to work our backsides off all season and be consistent and our players are now really starting to master their roles further to what they had at the start of the season.
"There's now more familiarity and predictability in what we're doing every game."
Saturday night's game tips off at 7.30pm.
WNBL ladder:
1. Southside - 13-7
Can finish: 1st or 2nd.
2. Townsville - 13-7
Can finish: 1st, 2nd or 3rd.
3. Bendigo - 11-9
Can finish: 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th.
4. Sydney - 11-9
Can finish: 3rd, 4th or 5th.
5. Melbourne - 11-9
Can finish: 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th.
6. Perth - 10-10
Can finish: 4th or 6th.
7. Adelaide - 7-13
Can finish: 7th.
8. Canberra - 4-16
Can finish: 8th.
Weekend games:
Canberra v Melbourne, Southside v Adelaide, Bendigo v Perth, Townsville v Sydney.
