Sami Whitcomb stars for Bendigo Spirit with triple-double as they remain undefeated with win over Perth Lynx

Former Perth captain Sami Whitcomb has returned to WA and produced the first triple-double of her WNBL career to keep Bendigo Spirit undefeated and put a dent in the Lynx’s premiership dreams. Bendigo won the top of the table clash 72-66 as Whitcomb produced 16 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists at the Bendat Baksetball Centre. The WNBA star made her name in WA but has played for Townsville and Bendigo in the last two seasons. Whitcomb started the season in blazing form and her 23.4 point average is nearly five points higher than any other player in the league. She said she was so focused during the game that she had no idea that her stats were so impressive. But Whitcomb said the triple-double meant a lot. “It’s an incredible league and on a night where I genuinely didn’t feel like I was playing my best, to end up being able to still impact the game in a big way was really important to me,” she said. “I really wanted to make sure that even if I was being tagged hard, I didn’t let scoring, or not scoring, or missing shots, impact what I was bringing to the game. So I’m proud of the fact that I did.” The match was expected to be a high scoring shoot out but it ended up being a finals-like slug fest. Miela Sowah was superb for Perth and elevated her status in the league even further by top scoring for the home team with 25 points in a game filled with Olympians. The Lynx had lost only one game for the season leading into the match but the Spirit had barely been challenged, with their closest result being two eight-point victories. The Lynx were not only the highest scoring team in the league, they were the most accurate shooting at 48 per cent from the field and 40 per cent from three-point range. But they started nervously and shot at only 17 per cent from three-point range for the night. They also missed eight of their 13 free throws. The lead changed 11 times throughout the game and Perth broke clear by eight points in the last quarter but couldn’t withstand Bendigo’s late onslaught. “It’s disappointing. Bendigo are a really good team. There’s lots of lessons for us,” Lynx General Manager Sam Macpherson said. “We can take lots of things from this game because it’s early in the season and we will have a lot to learn from it. “That’s not the game we like to play. Everyone has seen the style of game we like to play and that wasn’t it.”