That was the resounding message from Canberra Capitals coach Paul Goriss after his side slumped to a 35-point thrashing at the hands of the Melbourne Boomers on Friday night.

The Capitals' unbeaten start to their WNBL title defence went up in smoke during a 107-72 defeat at Geelong Arena in what Goriss dubs "just one of those games".

But the saving grace comes in the form of a short turnaround with the Capitals getting a chance to bounce back on the road against the Sydney Flames on Sunday.

"In situations like this, we don't have to wait another week to play another game," Goriss said.

"We get to play on Sunday and rectify some things in the next 48 hours. These are the kind of games that define your character and define your values as a team, with how we bounce back from this."

Goriss was frustrated by an uncharacteristic defensive performance and poor shot selection, left to rue a slow start that had Canberra playing catch-up in the first term.

MORE CAPITALS NEWS

Lindsay Allen posted 12 points last week - she had passed that mark within the first quarter as the Boomers opened up an early lead which would ultimately prove insurmountable.

Allen finished with a game-high 23 points while Keely Froling led the way for Canberra with 14 points, as Kelsey Griffin registered another double double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

The Capitals shot just 35 per cent from the field with Goriss taking the chance to inject some minutes into his bench players in the fourth quarter with the game beyond them.

"Keely is playing great but we've got to have more contributors. We've got to handle the physicality," Goriss said.

"We're still a new group, and we're still finding out way with Oli [Epoupa] in the point guard spot and how she fits into our group. We're still bringing [Marianna] Tolo along.

"We never got carried away after our two wins, we're still very much a work in progress. They're a good team but we allowed them to play well a little bit too.

"They could not have played any better or shot the ball any better. They got a hot start and partly, defensively, we didn't put enough pressure on them.

"When a good team like that who can score a lot of points gets going early, the confidence builds and we regressed a little bit. Then we were trying to play catch-up the whole game which doesn't help.

"Credit to them for what they did, but we were just not in sync at all, it was just one of those games."

AT A GLANCE

WNBL round three: MELBOURNE BOOMERS 107 (Lindsay Allen 23, Cayla George 18, Monique Conti 16) bt CANBERRA CAPITALS 72 (Keely Froling 14, Kia Nurse 13, Kelsey Griffin 12) at Geelong Arena. Crowd: 850.