spoke to Bec Cole this week on It’s a Cole World<\/a>, said it was a sharp learning curve for the re-tooled younger defending champions.<\/p>\n“I think it\u2019s probably an accumulation of the three games we had previously and then the double-header this week,” Griffin said.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s a really great learning opportunity about how you prepare, how you go into games mentally, needing to make in-game adjustments, and then dealing with quick turnarounds.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s very finals-like. I approached the Southside game using teaching moments to help the group understand that those are like finals turnarounds and making adjustments from game to game.<\/p>\n
“This one, from Geelong to travelling back home and then having to play this game with a quick turnaround, is another way to prepare for what finals basketball is like.<\/p>\n
“Perth\u2019s a very talented team, and they showed that tonight.<\/p>\n
“Now we get the opportunity to watch the film. This is twice in a row their zone has given us a ton of problems and really taken us out of our rhythm. We\u2019ll have plenty of footage to look at how we can attack that and potentially look at what other teams have done to exploit their zone, if possible.”<\/p>\n
Perth head coach Ryan Petrik did his best to keep the tough road win in perspective.<\/p>\n
“Largely, again, it\u2019s a regular-season game,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We know we play these guys for all the marbles, or for a much bigger prize, in two weeks\u2019 time. Winning today is nice, but like I said to the girls, I\u2019d rather lose today by 100 and win Game 1 by a point.<\/p>\n
“But to have won today on the back of a long road trip, when everyone\u2019s pretty tired and pretty homesick, is really pleasing. To play like that was really pleasing.<\/p>\n
“Even today there was some stuff we held back, because ultimately we knew we were a very strong chance of playing Bendigo in Round 1. <\/p>\n
“We didn\u2019t know if it was home court or not. Even today, we had some things up our sleeve that we thought would be even better than the game plan we put out, but we held that back knowing today wasn\u2019t as important as two weeks\u2019 time.<\/p>\n
“Next week is tricky. Bendigo go to Townsville, so Bendigo have to play us and then Townsville, and they\u2019ll be cherry-ripe for finals basketball. We have Sydney, who aren\u2019t in finals.<\/p>\n
“If you just throw it and rest all your stars and don\u2019t play how you normally play, what\u2019s your form line like? So it\u2019s rust versus rest. We want them as healthy as we can, but at the same time we want them playing well and in sync.<\/p>\n
“On this road trip they\u2019ve been in really good sync, so let\u2019s just get home, see friends, family, and loved ones first, and we\u2019ll deal with that on Tuesday.”<\/p>\n
Key DetailsBy the NumbersAmy Atwell (Perth Lynx) starred with 23 points, one rebound, one assist and was outstanding shooting 7-from-15 from the field, including 4-from-8 from downtown, going perfect 5-from-5 from the charity stripe in 27 minutes.Isobel Borlase (Bendigo Spirit) scored 16 points, and had five rebounds, four assists and two steals in 33 minutes.What Happened<\/p>\n
The Spirit established early control, taking a 23-22 lead after the first quarter before extending their advantage to 45-48 at halftime. But Perth’s dominance became apparent in the third period, where they outscored the Spirit 28-10 to take a commanding 73-58 lead into the final quarter.<\/p>\n
Perth’s third-quarter surge proved decisive, with the visitors exploding for 28 points while limiting Bendigo to a dismal 10 points. The Lynx capitalised on their momentum in the final period, adding 15 more points to complete the 24-point victory.<\/p>\n
Amy Atwell led Perth’s balanced offensive attack with an exceptional 23-point performance on outstanding shooting efficiency. The guard was clinical from beyond the arc, connecting on four triples and perfect from the free-throw line. Han Xu provided strong interior presence with 18 points on efficient 9-from-14 shooting, while Anneli Maley dominated the boards with 22 rebounds to go with 13 points.<\/p>\n
Perth’s superior shooting accuracy proved the difference between the sides. The Lynx shot a solid 43.48% from the field compared to Bendigo’s 40.54%, while their three-point shooting was particularly impressive at 34.2% versus the Spirit’s poor 23.3%. Perth’s dominance on the glass was equally crucial, out-rebounding their opponents 57-41, with Maley leading the way.<\/p>\n
For Bendigo, Isobel Borlase fought valiantly with 16 points and four assists, while Abbey Wehrung contributed 12 points shooting an outstanding 4-from-5 from downtown. However, the Spirit struggled to match Perth’s offensive firepower throughout the contest, managing just 64 points on the night.<\/p>\n
The victory strengthens Perth’s position in the WNBL standings, while Bendigo will need to regroup quickly as they look to bounce back from this disappointing home defeat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Perth Lynx flipped the game after halftime, crushing Bendigo Spirit 88\u201364 behind zone defence. Perth was in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-443826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}