There was Kelsey Griffin putting in a near 39-minute shift containing 22 points and 20 rebounds off the back of one week of full training.

There was Kia Nurse putting up 28 points three days after arriving in Australia having spent 19 hours on a plane.

There was Keely Froling posting a career-high 22 points to go with 11 rebounds, and the third quarter blitz that turned around a forgettable first half.

All in all, Canberra Capitals coach Paul Goriss is pretty happy with a 90-83 win over the Adelaide Lightning to open their WNBL season at the AIS Arena on Sunday.

Even if his best laid plans to manage Griffin's minutes were thrown out the window after an off-season dogged by injuries in the absence of Marianna Tolo and Mikaela Ruef.

"She'll be in an ice bath for the next week until we play Townsville," Goriss said.

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"I didn't plan on playing her for those minutes at all, we know she has only been back for one week at full practice.

"We organise and plan for the first sub of the game, and we were going to see how it rolled after that.

"I thought she would be asking for more subs but she didn't so we left her out there. She's a warrior, she leads this group and this team."

That leadership is perhaps why Griffin's own performance won't be her lasting memory from this clash - it will be Froling's outing that may well remove the word "rising" and just leave "star" next to her name.

"We have a long history together and for the first two years, I rode her pretty hard at practice and in games because I knew along the line she is going to be a special player," Goriss said.

"I'm really happy for her over the past 12 to 18 months with what she has been able to do on the court, not just with the Capitals, but with Uni Games and with three-on-three.

"She is well deserving, because she works her arse off. If there is one player outside of Kelsey that puts in the work, it's Keely."

New point guard Olivia Epoupa was electrifying with eight assists and seven rebounds during the perfect litmus test.

Froling rose to the occasion, Rocci impressed as a starter, while Abby Cubillo, Alex Delaney and Gemma Potter made important contributions off the bench. Not that Goriss ever had any doubts.

"I think, selfishly, we're good enough still with the group we have got," Goriss said.

"It's going to be tough for us, because we're undersized, but I think this team still has the talent to win games with who we've got right now."

Canberra trailed by 10 at the main break but Griffin caught fire early in the third quarter. And when Nurse found some open looks en route to 28 points? Forget about stopping her, because "Kia is Kia, and the Kia magic came in and got us rolling".

The Capitals outscored Adelaide 33-13 in the third quarter to take a 10-point lead into the final term.

"To be honest I'm just happy we won. We didn't start the game how we wanted to and that's not how we want to be known," Froling said.

"To turn it around and flick that switch at half-time was really great, it showed resilience from us."

The visitors trimmed the deficit back to three points but it proved too tall a mountain to climb with Crystal Langhorne missing the game due to niggling injuries.

"We came out and we weren't ready to play," Adelaide captain Nicole Seekamp said of the third quarter.

"We weren't doing the things we usually do, we were settling for threes ... we were taking them because we weren't being aggressive.

"We weren't very good on the defensive end either. They killed us on offensive rebounding."

WNBL ROUND ONE

Sunday: CANBERRA CAPITALS 90 (Kia Nurse 28, Kelsey Griffin 22, Keely Froling 22) bt ADELAIDE LIGHTNING 83 (Lauren Nicholson 32, Nicole Seekamp 17, Stephanie Talbot 13) at the AIS Arena. Crowd: 1405.