Kelsey Griffin shines as Canberra Capitals beat Perth Lynx in WNBL

Because trying to make Canberra co-captain Kelsey Griffin take a day off to manage her workload and an illness looms as a tougher task than drawing up any play.

Griffin was immense as the Capitals claimed their 15^th consecutive win on home court with an 84-66 victory over the Perth Lynx at the National Convention Centre on Sunday.

The Capitals ran riot in a 32-12 final term that saw Griffin (19 points, 15 rebounds) and Marianna Tolo (12 points, 10 rebounds) post double-doubles.

And it was in that fourth quarter that Griffin came to life. Goriss could see it in her eyes - so too could most of the 1604 that piled into the venue.

"I play with a fair bit of passion, the game means a lot to me, my teammates mean a lot to me, and getting to put on this Capitals singlet means a lot to me," Griffin said.

"I put everything into my game, I've been playing for a long time now and I try to do everything I can to get my team across the line.

MORE CANBERRA SPORT

"That comes across as a bit of aggressive, but it's coming from a good place, I promise.

"We started playing defence [in the fourth quarter]. It's amazing when you play defence how much you actually enjoy basketball.

"We were actually getting stops, we weren't relying on our offence. We found our identity, and that's who we really want to be. That's what we've talked about being this year, that was really great.

"We definitely started vibing off each other. Shots become easier, you have less scoreboard pressure, it's a lot of fun."

Canberra managed to keep Ariel Atkins quiet with 2-16 shooting, while Katie Ebzery's lone points came from the free throw line.

It was a different story for the hosts with point guard Maddison Rocci draining four threes en route to 13 points, while young gun Gemma Potter impressed in an 18-minute stint.

"We've got good depth," Goriss said.

"Those players train their backsides off and deserve every opportunity they get. Training alongside [Griffin], Tolo and Kia [Nurse], they'll only continue to get better.

"We need them not only down the stretch but at crucial times in the game and they're playing valuable minutes for us.

The Lynx were dealt an early blow when Maddison Allen was hampered by a left knee injury in the warm-up which had major ramifications on coach Andy Stewart's rotations.

Perth have dropped three games in overtime and a late fade-out in the capital leaves them at 3-5 - a record many believe they are better than.

"Well, are we? The reality is you've got to finish games off," Stewart said.

"We broke down in a couple of areas that we specifically concentrated on coming into this game. That's our own fault rather than anything else.

"Extremely disappointing. They scored straight away and then we knocked down a three, and then we gave them supply, turned the ball over and gave them easy scores.

"It had been such an arm wrestle up until that time. They got two breakaway layups which really excited them and deflated us. Then we received that little onslaught.

"We knew they would gamble every now and again trying to steal a pass, we knew it was part of their game.

"Everybody has got to back up, everybody has got to play two games away at some stage, so bad luck for us."

AT A GLANCE

WNBL round six: CANBERRA CAPITALS 84 (Kelsey Griffin 19, Kia Nurse 18, Maddison Rocci 13) bt PERTH LYNX 66 (Lauren Mansfield 23, Alison Schwagmeyer-Belger 19, Nadeen Payne 10) at National Convention Centre. Crowd: 1605.