Perth Lynx lock up second spot on WNBL ladder after thumping win over Bendigo Spirit as Anneli Maley runs wild

Perth Lynx coach Ryan Petrik will spend the week deciding whether to pull out a tactic Ross Lyon employed while he was at Fremantle for next week’s game against Sydney after locking up second spot on the WNBL ladder with a thumping win over Bendigo. The Lynx and Spirit knew they would be facing off in the semifinals so Sunday’s game was going to determine home court advantage for those matches. Perth dominated despite being in Bendigo and won 88-64 as co-captain Anneli Maley equalled the club record for the most rebounds in a game with 22 for the day. She also scored 13 points. The Lynx are now one win and 5.3 percentage points clear of Bendigo. Ladder leaders Townsville are one win and 4.8 percentage points clear of the Lynx. Perth’s percentage increased by only 0.8 points on Sunday despite the thumping victory. The Lynx famously chose to put their best team on the court in the final round of the 2017/18 season despite being guaranteed top spot and then watched in horror as they suffered injuries to key players. Lyon rested the majority of his players in the last round of 2013 and then stunned Geelong in an away qualifying final the next weekend. Petrik said he was torn between not wanting to change the team’s routine and guaranteeing his squad is healthy for finals. “It’s a really tricky one,” Petrik said. “I like Ross Lyon. He took players 22 to 40-odd. I like that theory but we don’t have 10 DPs sitting at home waiting to play. It’s something we will deal with next week. “The tricky one next week is that Bendigo goes to Townsville. So Bendigo will have played us and Townsville, so they’ll be cherry ripe for finals basketball. “We have Sydney who aren’t in finals and if we just go and throw it, rest our stars and don’t play how we normally play, what is our form line like? “Is is rust versus rest? We want them as healthy as we can but at the same time we want them playing well and playing in sync.” Perth trailed by three points at half-time but then took over, restricting Bendigo to only 16 points for then rest of the game. Han Xu scored 18 points, won six rebounds and had three blocks Amy Atwell top scored with 23 points, including four three-pointers. Alex Ciabattoni had 16 points, seven rebounds and four assist. Ally Wilson finished with 13 points, five rebounds and four assists