Wilson felt there were plenty of positives for the Caps to take from pushing the reigning Women's National Basketball League champions, one of which was the Herculean effort of Abby Bishop (19 points, 18 rebounds).

Bishop and teammates dominated the boards (50-26), as she again led the way for the visitors on offence.

She always found herself up against at least two opponents, keeping Canberra in the game in the first half as they let a 15-8 quarter-time lead slip with Bendigo dominating the second term.

But they hung in and trailed by just three points with about one minute to go, but couldn't capitalise onopportunities and were beaten by the shot clock twice.

"She had to work so hard for everything tonight and she was great," Wilson said of Bishop.

"She had 18 boards, it's unheard of, and that's  a scalp for her. Other teams are going, 'We've got to keep her off the boards' so they're trying hard, but she's still managing to get 18.

"It's a monster effort."

The Capitals had  chances to win it in the final minutes, but turnovers continued to be a millstone around their necks as it has for all three games this season.

They coughed the ball up 25 times, to the Spirit's nine, and Wilson said it would again be a focus at training this week.

Wilson said their high-tempo game meant they would always be susceptible to turnovers, but could not afford to do it two or even three times in a row as they did against Bendigo.

"It's a really tough one because you get to the point where if you harp too much on turnovers then people start getting timid and people start second-guessing themselves," she said.

"But if you don't start being accountable and pulling people up, and yourself as well, then the problem just keeps going.

"The other thing we've got to be careful of is it's week two. We need to make sure we don't turn this into panic stations, cos it's really not."

It was their second loss in a row and their record slips to 1-2.

They return home to face Dandenong at the AIS Arena next week which, Wilson said, loomed as a big game for the Caps.

"Everybody on our team has played for Dandenong pretty much, we've got so many people who have played for Dandenong, even [coach Carrie Graf] went to Dandenong High," she said.

"We've all got our history with that club. It's definitely good to try to get the win."

AT A GLANCE

Bendigo Spirit 67 (Gabrielle Richards  20, Belinda Snell 7, Kelsey Griffin 7, Chelsea Aubry 7) bt Canberra Capitals 60 (Abby Bishop 19, Stephanie Talbot 11, Jess Bibby 10) at Bendigo Stadium on Saturday.