Canberra Capitals co-Captain and Sports Wizard® ambassador, Natalie Hurst, has come off a massive weekend with the Club, scoring 50 points across two demanding away games.
The performance earned Hurst the WNBL Player of the Week award for Round Six.
Decimated by injury, the Capitals put on a remarkable performance to beat the Dandenong Rangers 93-85, with Hurst leading the way to post 31 points and 10 assists, again acting as an inspiration to her teammates.
The Opals star followed up with 19 points and six assists in the tough 84-68 loss to the league-leading Bendigo Spirit less than 24 hours later.
Hurst told WNBL.com.au the win over Dandenong spoke volumes of the character in the Canberra locker room.
“We’ve got older players, experienced players and then young payers, but the way we mesh and how we all get along at training and off the court has helped us through this period of adversity,” she said.
Hurst also told league reporters she felt she needed to lead from the front and take her individual game to another level after injury interrupted her pre-season preparation.
“I was one of those injured people at the start of the season and it really hampered how I started off the season,” Hurst said.
“Now I’m feeling a lot better and I feel the team needed me to take a lot more responsibility than I was taking. I took that on board over the weekend and luckily it paid off for me.”
It has been a stunning return to the WNBL for Hurst, who is currently averaging career high points (17.1 per game – #4 in WNBL), assists (6 per game – #2 in WNBL) and free throw percentage (90% – #3 in WNBL).
The trips to face the Rangers and Spirit were the start of a massive five-week road program that will see the Capitals travel more than 10,000 kilometres.
