It took until the last quarter of the last game, on the last day of the regular season to decide the makeup of the WNBL's final four, which came as no surprise after an action-packed four months.
In a season where COVID-19 wreaked havoc on fixtures and championship contender Perth started its quest a month after other teams, then endured weeks on the other side of the country, #WNBL22 had another dramatic twist to come.
It began mid last week when the final round launched and Adelaide Lightning (4th) kept UC Capitals (3rd) to their lowest score of the year – 50 points.
Three days later, the Melbourne Boomers (1st) annihilated the Caps in a battle for the double chance.
Southside Flyers upset Adelaide a few hours later, then on Sunday afternoon Townsville Fire stunned Perth (2nd) and the Boomers snapped up their spot at the top of the ladder.
Finals tip off this Thursday night with a double header, the Boomers hosting Adelaide in Melbourne before Perth has home-court advantage in the opening game of its best-of-three semi-final series against the Capitals.
Relief to make finals after COVID chaos
It's an achievement just to reach post-season action after the pandemic up-ended the 2021-22 schedule.
Head of WNBL Christy Collier-Hill, who began in the role in January, says off the back of a hub campaign in north Queensland in late 2020, this home-and-away season has been far from smooth.
"The first half of the WNBL season was really impacted by COVID and at one stage there was around 18 games that had either been postponed, rescheduled or cancelled," she told ABC NewsRadio.
"The league started with all teams playing 21 games as part of the fixture and it actually ended up with six of the eight teams finishing on 17 games and the other two teams finishing on 16 games.
Semi-final series 1: Melbourne Boomers v Adelaide Lightning
Lightning captain and dual Olympian Steph Talbot believes recent surprise results and score lines don't count for much in a closely-contested tilt at the title.
Adelaide defeated Melbourne early in the season but lost to them in the penultimate round.
"The top four is all really close and I think it's anyone's game. It doesn't really matter what's happened previously, now it's a reset," Talbot said.
The Boomers are on a high after a 107-52 final-round victory over the Caps, and securing their first minor premiership since 2010-11.
Talbot's Opals teammate, Melbourne captain Cayla George, who recently played game 300, says focus now turns to taking care of Adelaide.
"I think we'll bring our heads back down a little bit – never too high, never too low — that will be our mentality," she told ABC TV post-game.
"We've accomplished one goal, what's the next goal?"
While Collier-Hill can't play favourites in her new role, the former Boomers general manager still has a soft spot for the side.
"I'm really proud of what they've been able to achieve —, getting minor premiers is no mean feat," she said.
Semi-final series 2: Perth Lynx v UC Capitals
Perth spent 44 days on the road, based in the Victorian regional city of Ballarat, to start the season.
Lynx skipper Darcee Garbin says while her team couldn't secure the minor premiership, home-court advantage is huge.
"I'm still blown away with the amount of people we've had at games considering we hadn't played at home since the start of 2020," she said.
"For this first game against Canberra, I think it's super important to have our fans behind us as our sixth man."
UC Capitals guard Kelly Wilson, who in January became the first player to reach 400 WNBL games, has enough finals, and championship winning experience to know best-of-series are a marathon not a sprint.
"For us, after not ending the season the way we would have liked, it's reset, regroup, reassess," she said.
"Three-game series are really tricky, they're tactical and obviously you're playing back-to-back games.
"It's all about getting through game one then starting again, reassessing game two and if need be, that third, deciding game."
The winners of the semi-final series will face off in a best of three grand final series, starting on April 2.
All finals will be live streamed on ABC iview.
Megan Hustwaite is part of ABC TV's WNBL commentary team.
