The Southside Melbourne Flyers have absorbed a poor start and an injury to Nya Lok to secure a WNBL finals berth with an 82-75 victory over the Canberra Capitals.
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Isabelle Bourne scored 22 points at 90 per cent for the Flyers in Tuesday's virtual elimination final at AIS Arena, while Maddy Rocci paired 17 points with 10 assists and captain Cayla George racked up 10 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks.
Tuesday night's result means that with one round to go Southside (10-12) cannot be overtaken by fifth-ranked Canberra (8-14), who needed to win to keep their finals hopes alive.
The only negative for the Flyers came early in the third quarter when Lok injured her right ankle on a bad landing.
"It was nice to see our team really dig deep in that second half," Southside coach Kristi Harrower said.
"It hasn't been the easiest season, trying to find consistency, but there's definitely a smile on our face after that win."
Jade Melbourne (23 points, 5-of-8 three-pointers) and Nicole Munger (17, 5-of-9) starred for the Capitals, who were slowly strangled across the last three quarters after a fast start.
Surprise packet Munger drilled three threes in the opening term as Canberra jumped ahead 18-8, before Rocci helped reduce the gap to 26-20 at quarter time.
Melbourne had to take a seat when she followed a turnover with her third foul - an unsportsmanlike, infringing on Rocci.
With Melbourne watching on, Canberra racked up eight turnovers in the face of some disruptive defence as the Flyers drew level at 44-all at halftime.
Munger hit her fourth and fifth triples in the third period as the Caps' shooting kept them in the hunt, but Rocci's playmaking at the other end was pivotal in easing Southside to a 64-60 three-quarter time edge.
Nyadiew Puoch gave Canberra the lead early in the fourth term, before Southside cut the cough-ups down and responded with a 9-0 burst to pull ahead 73-65.
Bourne was posing problems in the post, stepping up following the loss of Lok, while the Flyers' defence was cutting off most of Canberra's scoring avenues - Melbourne aside - down the stretch.
"Our foul discipline in the first half wasn't very good," Capitals coach Paul Goriss said.
"And I thought (with) our one-on-one defence in the first half, they were getting downhill way too easily."
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