Marianna Tolo has found a silver lining to the Canberra Capitals' second loss of the WNBL season, saying it's a chance to iron out the kinks ahead of finals.
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The Capitals' seven-game winning streak ended with a 73-67 loss to the Melbourne Boomers on Tuesday night in Townsville.
Melbourne led from the outset as Maddie Garrick (19 points, 3 rebounds) and Ezi Magbegor (18 points,13 rebound double-double) combined to keep the Capitals at bay. It left Canberra frustrated, with the two-time reigning champions scoring only 34 per cent of field goals.
But with only four matches left of the regular season, co-captain Tolo said the Capitals need to learn from their mistakes and adjust quickly.
"Timing is everything," Tolo said.
"Losing now is not such a bad thing because it gives a chance to practice and work on somethings that were highlighted in the game.
"I think it's great this happens now and we can start to build some momentum towards the end of the season and [finals]."
The Capitals will now shift their focus to Friday's clash with the Adelaide Lightning, which will see the return of full-capacity crowds at Townsville Stadium.
MORE CANBERRA SPORT
Queensland Health has allowed an increase to the venue's capacity in line with a further easing of coronavirus restrictions, with spectators in ticketed allocated seating.
All of Canberra's remaining matches will be played at the venue, which will also host the WNBL finals series.
Tolo said the Capitals are relishing the two-day break between games leading into the play-offs, especially now teams like Melbourne and Adelaide are on the rise.
"It's a big advantage that we do get the time to prepare at least one day before every game. I think it'll really help us in the long run to be able to do that," Tolo said.
"If you look at Melbourne, they had a week between games but now have to play five games in eight days. We'll try to take that to our advantage.
"We'll always have a chance to practice before a game. It's great for us that we'll able to prepare for each game, do our walk through, talk through our strategies and help each other sort out what we want to do.
"It's going to be really beneficial for our next one, which will also be a really tough one against Adelaide."
WNBL ROUND FOUR
Friday: Canberra Capitals v Adelaide Lightning at Townsville Stadium, 6pm AEDT.