Kia Nurse stars as Canberra Capitals claim WNBL semi-final win over Melbourne Boomers

Because it seems their team always finds a way - and now the reigning WNBL champions find themselves one step away from another grand final appearance.

The Capitals drew first blood in their best of three semi-final series with an 84-70 win over the Melbourne Boomers in front of 2492 at the AIS Arena on Sunday.

Canberra will advance to the grand final series if they win game two at Melbourne's State Basketball Centre on Sunday.

It leaves Melbourne fighting for their season in the hope they can force the series to a decider back at the AIS Arena.

Ask Canberra coach Paul Goriss and he will tell you it was by no means easy - even if Kia Nurse made it look simple as she turned the game on its head with 25 points.

The newly-crowned Suzy Batkovic Medallist dropped three consecutive shots from beyond the arc midway through the third quarter to give Canberra a lead they wouldn't surrender.

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The league's most valuable player is just one part of the puzzle that creates something of an aura about this Capitals outfit. Because when shots weren't dropping and Melbourne looked in control, suddenly she hit one and the crowd erupted.

"Kelsey [Griffin] looked at me and was like 'do you want another one?' I was like 'okay'," Nurse said.

"So you keep going back to it until you miss it, and then you go to something else. That's fun, the best part about it is our crowd here. There's nothing like it.

"It's hard to play in an environment like that when you're an away team, so to get the crowd going was also a big part in the turnaround we had there."

Olivia Epoupa posted a double double with her season-high 19 points and 10 rebounds, while Kelsey Griffin set the tone with seven steals.

Maddison Rocci came up with crucial plays and Boomers star Lindsay Allen was limited to six points in the final three quarters to finish with 17.

But it was Nurse driving three-pointed daggers into Melbourne's hearts right until the final buzzer. Put simply, "that's why she is the MVP".

"We found ways to get her the ball and she does her job of knocking down shots. At the end of the day, that's why she is the MVP," Goriss said.

"She's a big time player, she wants to take the big shots and wants to do the work. She was great at both ends of the floor."

Then there is the curious case of Marianna Tolo, who wouldn't have suited up for her 200^th WNBL game if it had taken place even one day earlier after being sidelined all week with an illness.

But she battled through, as did Boomers young gun Ezi Magbegor after a bout of gastro left her below her best.

"If the game was [on Saturday], I wouldn't have played. It was the flu, I would have been still infectious," Tolo said.

"I didn't want to put my teammates and their team at risk. Today I was like a million bucks, I was so much better. It's hard to compare. I've been in bed for the past five days in isolation at home.

"We take a bit of confidence out of this but at the same time, game two is a completely different game. They're at home. We'll look to adjust a few things.

"They'll look to shut down one of our players we kept going to tonight, which was Kia, getting her shots off. It will be a completely different game."

For now one eye rests on the top-seeded Southside Flyers and Adelaide Lightning as they prepare to open their semi-final series in Dandenong on Tuesday.

AT A GLANCE

WNBL semi-final game one: CANBERRA CAPITALS 84 (Kia Nurse 25, Olivia Epoupa 19, Keely Froling 11) bt MELBOURNE BOOMERS 70 (Lindsay Allen 17, Maddie Garrick 16, Sophie Cunningham 14) at AIS Arena. Crowd: 2492.