Melbourne Boomers could not punish them, but Canberra Capitals were made to pay for another turnover-ridden performance in a 73-70 loss to Sydney at AIS Arena on Saturday night.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A last-gasp three point attempt with half a second left from Jess Bibby bounced off the front of the rim, consigning Canberra to a 1-1 start to its season.
Bibby admitted she thought her shot off a well-executed inbounds play was going to force overtime.
"I thought it was in, I was ready to celebrate and start overtime," Bibby said.
"You've only got time for catch and shoot. I was a fair way out and didn't have time to set too much.
"It was a well executed play. Unfortunately I couldn't knock it down but it did everything but."
The Capitals overcame 23 turnovers to beat Melbourne on the road on Friday, but the Flames made them pay for their wasteful play in their first home game of the year.
Canberra turned the ball over 20 times, nine of those from young forward Stephanie Talbot, and gave up far too many offensive rebounds.
Bibby, who top scored with 24 points, conceded the Capitals were their own worst enemies.
"You want to try and win as many home games as you can. It probably undoes a lot of the good work we did on the road in Melbourne," Bibby said.
"There's lots of things we have to work on. We turned the ball over a lot more than we want and that's partly being a new group and getting used to one another.
"I know as a group we won't be looking forward to practice this week because it's going to be box out drill after box out drill.
"It really let us down. We want to be a team which prides ourselves on possession. We didn't do it and we didn't stop their second chance opportunities either."
The Flames withstood a fourth quarter rally from Canberra to register their first win of the WNBL season.
Canberra closed to within a point in the dying stages after trailing by as many as 13 in the final term.
The Capitals overcame 23 turnovers to beat the Boomers on Friday, but the Flames capitalised on a new-look Capitals offense, which threw the ball away another 20 times.
The hosts' attack looked stagnant for the most part and only 24 points from Jess Bibby, 15 of those in the first half, kept them in the contest.
Sydney's back court was dangerous, Australian Opals point guard Leilani Mitchell (13 points, six rebounds, six assists) and Katie-Rae Ebzery (19 points) causing the big Capitals outfit plenty of problems.
The Flames took a 37-33 half-time lead, with only 15 first half points from Bibby keeping the hosts close.
Offensive rebounds and offensive fouls crippled the Capitals in the third term as Sydney built a 55-46 lead at the final break.
Canberra surged to get within five points with three minutes left, and a Carly Wilson three-pointer with 1:24 minutes left got the Capitals within three points.
An Abby Bishop lay-up then made it a one-point ball game with 45 seconds left.
Two free throws with 17 seconds left from Rohanee Cox extended Sydney's lead to 71-68.
The crowd held its breath as Bibby's effort to extend the match just missed.
Bishop played with four fouls for the last quarter and a half of the match, but still finished with 14 points, 12 rebounds and three assists.
Canberra travels to two-time defending champion Bendigo this Saturday in round two.
SYDNEY FLAMES 73 (Katie-Rae Ebzery 19, Rohanee Cox 15, Leilani Mitchell 13) bt CANBERRA CAPITALS 70 (Jess Bibby 24, Abby Bishop 14, Stephanie Talbot 12) at AIS Arena on Saturday night.
