CAPITALS 93 RANGERS 85
Natalie Hurst scored 31 points on Saturday night. Photo: Katherine Griffiths
THE Canberra Capitals ignited their WNBL campaign with a potential season-defining win on Saturday night and coach Carrie Graf wants her team to embrace its road warrior tag for the next month.
The Capitals stunned the Dandenong Rangers and a packed home crowd when stars Nat Hurst and Abby Bishop led the Canberra team to victory.
The confidence-boosting win is the perfect start to 37 days on the road which will take them 10,500 kilometres around Australia for eight games.
Hurst finished with 31 points and 10 assists while Bishop, who didn't train during the week because of an ankle injury, bravely scored 22 and grabbed 15 rebounds.
The hard-fought win follows last week's gutsy performance against the Rangers where the Capitals pushed all the way despite having just five fit players.
They will now back up against the Bendigo Spirit on Sunday after making the two-hour drive from Melbourne to Bendigo on Saturday night. The Spirit thrashed Canberra by 23 points last month.
''We're starting to find ourselves. If we can find a way to get everyone healthy and some wins over the next week we're going to just get better,'' Graf said. ''We got confidence out of last week even though we didn't win. This week was well deserved and well executed.
''Abby Bishop didn't practise all week but was huge for us and Hurst was phenomenal. They showed why we recruited them back to Canberra.''
The Capitals were rated only a $9 chance to beat a strong Dandenong roster, led by WNBA player Jenna O'Hea.
But despite having limited training time together and players in and out of the team, the Capitals rallied to get a crucial win.
They led for the entire second half and had to constantly hold off the fighting Rangers.
Former Capitals star Brigitte Ardossi was fouled out of the game in the last quarter and the Dandenong bench was stretched even further when Alice Kunek joined her. Hurst nailed five of six three-point attempts while co-captain Jess Bibby also finished with 18 points.
Saturday: CANBERRA CAPITALS 93 (N Hurst 31, A Bishop 22, J Bibby 18) bt DANDENONG RANGERS 85 (J O'Hea 26, A Kunek 18, K Pederson 17) at Dandenong Basketball Stadium.
Sunday: Canberra Capitals v Bendigo Spirit at Bendigo Stadium, 2pm.
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