Perth and Sydney Uni have joined Townsville in a three-way battle for the league's best record after scoring vital wins during the WNBL's Cluster Round in Melbourne.
But the news wasn't good for the Melbourne Boomers after Liz Cambage was ejected in the fourth quarter of a 101-89 defeat to the defending champion Flames.
Making her return after serving a one-match suspension for kneeing Canberra import Mistie Bass, Cambage tallied 22 points and seven assists before picking up her second technical foul and being ejected for the second time this season.
The star centre received the technical fouls for continually protesting with the referees, with the second technical coming after Sydney Uni went on a scoring run that effectively took the game away from Melbourne.
The Boomers missed Cambage's inside presence in Townsville on Thursday night as the Fire held off a late fightback to win 73-66.
"It just feels like we lost our way a little bit over the last week or so," Boomers coach Guy Molloy said after losing two consecutive games following the Cambage suspension.
Molloy's task now is to get his squad, and star player, back on track as successive losses have the Boomers falling out of the top four.
"We've got a lot to play for so I'll have to address those things with Liz personally and with the team during the week," he said.
The Flames were on fire from beyond the arc, hitting 17 triples with Asia Taylor (29 points), Belinda Snell (28 points) and Alex Wilson (24 points) doing most of the damage.
Behind dynamic import duo Sami Whitcomb (27 points, six rebounds, five steals) and Courtney Williams (22 points), Perth extended their winning streak to seven games by defeating the Townsville Fire 84-79.
Perth now join Townsville and Sydney Uni with a league-best 8-4 win-loss record.
After a see-sawing three quarters, Whitcomb swung the match Perth's way in the final term with her three-pointer closing out a pivotal 9-0 scoring run before nailing her fifth triple in the final two minutes to secure the victory.
"We started 0-3, we were sitting 1-4 and flat on the bottom," Perth coach Andy Stewart said following the win over Townsville.
"That was a great game - that was probably our best game that we've played, I think."
Williams, the current WNBL Player of the Week, scored 21 points on Thursday night as Perth won their sixth successive match with a 74-62 result over the Dandenong Rangers.
The Bendigo Spirit opened Saturday's games by erasing a 15-point deficit to defeat the University of Canberra Capitals 83-80.
Betnijah Laney scored 23 points while Nadeen Payne (18 points) hit the go-ahead three-pointer 40 seconds from fulltime as the Caps lost their 10th match in a row to replace Bendigo at the bottom of the ladder.
The fifth-placed Adelaide Lightning scored a comfortable 70-49 victory over the slumping Dandenong Rangers who are in danger of missing the postseason having lost four of their past five games.
