Amy Atwell has unleashed a dazzling shooting display as the Perth Lynx defeated Bendigo 88-64 to all but lock up home court advantage during the WNBL semi-finals.
Bendigo led 51-45 early in the third quarter before the Lynx outscored their opponents 43-13 for the remainder of Sunday's match to seal the easy win.
Atwell owned the third quarter, racking up 13 points - including three triples - to break Bendigo's spirit.
Bendigo coach Kennedy Kereama unleashed his frustrations during a time-out just before three-quarter time, slapping his hand down on a boarding and yelling at his players following their dramatic collapse.
The spray didn't work, with the Spirit scoring just six points in a woeful final quarter, leaving their home fans at Red Energy Arena stunned.
Atwell finished with 23 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the perimeter, while Han Xu (18 points), Anneli Maley (13 points, 22 rebounds), Alex Ciabattoni (16 points) and Ally Wilson (13 points) all played crucial roles.
The second-placed Lynx (17-5) are now a win and percentage ahead of third-placed Bendigo (16-6).
The Lynx can lock up second spot with a win over the last-placed Sydney Flames in Perth next Saturday in their final game of the regular season.
Even if Perth lose, Bendigo would have to beat ladder leaders Townsville (18-4) next Sunday by a huge margin in order to leapfrog the Lynx on percentage.
The Lynx are still an outside chance of nabbing top spot - but they would need a big win over Sydney and also rely on the Fire losing to Bendigo by a sizeable margin.
After Sunday's match, Atwell revealed Illawarra Hawks NBL sharpshooter Tyler Harvey played a key role in her hot shooting display against Bendigo.
"It was Tyler Harvey, he posts a lot of stuff about shooting on an Instagram account. It was along the lines of, 'good shooters don't change anything when they miss shots'," Atwell said.
"You're going to go through slumps, it's just that belief in the work that you've put in that it will eventually come around.
"I've had a quiet last month and a pretty down shooting season overall, so it was nice to feel like my old self tonight."
Izzy Borlase top scored for the Spirit with 16 points, but she lacked support as Bendigo crashed to their second loss on the trot.
Xu made a big impact early with 10 points in the opening quarter, but Bendigo kept the scoreboard ticking along on their end to take a 26-23 lead into the first break.
Maley racked up an incredible 15 rebounds in the first half, and she thought she had levelled the scores at 48-all at half-time - only for the referees to correctly deem her three-pointer was released just after the buzzer sounded.
The third quarter belonged to Atwell, with her hot long-range shooting sparking a huge run by the Lynx that simply blew Bendigo out of the water.
