Kelsey Griffin hears the word resilience thrown around a lot.
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"But you guys saw it," the Canberra Capitals leader said, "that was resilience".
The Capitals are rallying around suspended coach Paul Goriss, who has received the backing of players and staff amid a tumultuous period for the WNBL club.
Britt Sykes scored 33 points as the Capitals rose above adversity to make a statement with a 100-88 win over the Bendigo Spirit at the National Convention Centre on Wednesday night.
The Capitals won without Goriss on the bench. The head coach is serving a suspension until January 20 for an integrity breach that saw referee Simon Cosier wiped out for the entire season.
In Goriss' place sat Capitals assistant Kennedy Kereama, leading a playing group desperate to make a statement for their coach in response to what many privately see as an overblown sanction.
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Kereama joked Goriss' parting message this week before he stepped aside from coaching duties was simply don't lose. But in reality, the Capitals were confidence they had the tools to overcome the odds.
"When a key leader is excluded from a program, it has a massive impact in many different ways, in more ways than I could probably explain," Kereama said.
"The one thing I do want to say is in terms of coach Gorrie, he has built such an unbelievable ecosystem here at this club.
"With the players and the personnel he has brought in, the ownership and empowerment he has given to this playing group and his coaching staff, this team is prepared for these types of scenarios. That's the type of program coach has built here.
"They can play a game without a coach, and I'm being really honest. I managed very small parts of that game. This team managed themselves for the majority of that game, I think they did such a fantastic job and it was a great team win.
"Given the last 24 hours, it was great to be able to come out on top."
Goriss is owning his actions, admitting his guilt in accepting footage of a Sydney scrimmage session - initially intended for referee education purposes - before Canberra faced the Flames in round one.
The Capitals won that game despite trailing for the majority, and were found to have gained no real advantage by using three clips as part of their pre-match scout. Sydney owner Paul Smith has called for the result to be overturned.
Canberra had little more than 24 hours to adjust after Goriss' sanction was handed down.
Kereama was to step in as head coach for a team already missing Griffin and Tahlia Tupaea due to injury, a side hurting after a 26-point loss on home court three days earlier. But the Capitals responded as any contender would.
Griffin had privately pushed to play against Bendigo, so eager was she to make a stand for Goriss against her former club.
Instead she was made to sit on the bench as she continues to recover from facial fractures, but Griffin still made a point of backing him during the post-match press conference.
"How Goz and our relationship has been able to mature over time being coached by him is, like Kennedy is saying, empowering," Griffin said.
"Goz will step aside at training and let Kennedy run training and different aspects of it. When we knew as a playing group that we weren't going to be able to be coached by Goz, being coached by Kennedy wasn't a concern of ours because of how Goz has led our team and what he has instilled in us.
What we can do is go out and show how much we care about each other and have a really, strong concerted effort and build on what will be a long season for us. Even though it feels like we're about a year and a half into the season, it's only our third game.
- Kelsey Griffin
"That's the kind of high character coach he is, to not be insecure, to not be worried about another should-be head coach in this league stepping in and assisting him.
"We work way too hard to not be able to go out and enjoy it. A lot of things have happened and we can't do anything about those things.
"What we can do is go out and show how much we care about each other and have a really, strong concerted effort and build on what will be a long season for us. Even though it feels like we're about a year and a half into the season, it's only our third game."
A year and a half already, and as Kereama jests, "that's just the past 24 hours".
"The response from the playing group has been exactly as I would have expected it to be," Kereama said.
"I mentioned to the group that since joining this program, I certainly always had expectations from an outside coach and a perspective of the program, but those standards have been met every single day. This playing group find ways to be better.
"Whenever a barrier or a challenge is placed in front of them, such as the one we currently sit in front of right now, they find ways to rise above it.
"I feel incredibly privileged to be a part of a program where people take so much personal pride in their performance and take care of each other."
AT A GLANCE
WNBL round four: CANBERRA CAPITALS100 (Britt Sykes 33, Kelly Wilson 14, Britt Smart 13) bt BENDIGO SPIRIT 88 (Annely Maley 38, Maddie Garrick 12, Alex Wilson 11) at National Convention Centre.
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