{"id":924777,"date":"2026-10-11T23:52:36","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T23:52:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/924777\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T23:52:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T23:52:36","slug":"shepparton-witnesses-bendigo-stars-dominate-in-pre-season-hit-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/924777\/","title":{"rendered":"Shepparton witnesses Bendigo stars dominate in pre-season hit-out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shepparton basketball fans were treated to a clinical performance by a WNBA-player boasting Bendigo Spirit side on Friday night as the club geared up for its WNBL campaign with a pre-season test.<\/p>\n

The Spirit faced fellow WNBL team Southside Melbourne Flyers at Shepparton Sports Stadium, with Australian stars Jade Melbourne and Isobel Borlase featuring in Bendigo yellow.<\/p>\n

It was a comprehensive demolition job employed by the Spirit, with the supreme talent in its squad too much for the Flyers to handle on the night.<\/p>\n

The Flyers were combatted at either end of the floor, defensively bested by the Spirit while also conceding plenty of buckets on the opposing end of the hardwood.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the Spirit prevailed 88-51 at the final buzzer, with Bendigo set to dribble into WNBL season 2026-27 with the momentum of a fast break.<\/p>\n

News photographer Rechelle Zammit sat courtside at the WNBL pre-season blockbuster to capture all the crossovers, dimes, and buckets.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Previous
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

Next
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Image 1 of 9
\n Bendigo Spirit’s Casey Samuels dashes down the hardwood.
\n Photo by
\n Rechelle Zammit<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Image 2 of 9
\n Bendigo Spirit’s Jade Melbourne shoots from the charity stripe.
\n Photo by
\n Rechelle Zammit<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Image 3 of 9
\n Bendigo Spirit’s Kelly Wilson guards Southside Melbourne Flyers’ Haylee Andrews.
\n Photo by
\n Rechelle Zammit<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Image 4 of 9
\n Southside Melbourne Flyers’ Nela Fakalata makes an inbound over Bendigo Spirit’s Kelly Wilson.
\n Photo by
\n Rechelle Zammit<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Image 5 of 9
\n Southside Melbourne Flyers’ Izzy Wightman corners Bendigo Spirit’s Casey Samuels.
\n Photo by
\n Rechelle Zammit<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Image 6 of 9
\n Bendigo Spirit’s Kelsey Rees hustles back to defend the paint.
\n Photo by
\n Rechelle Zammit<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Image 7 of 9
\n Bendigo Spirit’s Jade Melbourne enters triple threat against Southside Melbourne Flyers’ Izzy Wightman.
\n Photo by
\n Rechelle Zammit<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Image 8 of 9
\n Bendigo Spirit’s Abigail Wehrung takes point guard duties.
\n Photo by
\n Rechelle Zammit<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Image 9 of 9
\n Bendigo Spirit’s Casey Samuels approaches the Flyers’ defence.
\n Photo by
\n Rechelle Zammit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shepparton basketball fans were treated to a clinical performance by a WNBA-player boasting Bendigo Spirit side on Friday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":924778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-924777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=924777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/924778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=924777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=924777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=924777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}