The Rangers scored a 75-56 win at Dandenong with the lunchtime tip-off leaving the Waves playing at 9.30am West Australian time.

The Rangers looked to make full use of any disturbance to the Waves' body clocks by playing pressure defence and forcing the pace from the start, taking an early 13-2 lead and never trailing.

While the Waves mounted a few spirited passages throughout the game they couldn't stop Rangers stars Kath Macleod (16 points), Steph Cumming (16) and Jenna O'Hea (13) from moving their side to a insurmountable 20-point margin in the second half.

The win came after the Rangers lost their fourth straight game on Friday night, going down to Bendigo 84-77 at Bendigo.

Rangers coach Mark Wright said his side would take confidence from the Waves match but still needed to make significant improvements before hosting championship hopeful Adelaide at Dandenong Stadium on Saturday night.

"In the end we needed a win and the girls got it," he said. "Hopefully our girls can rise to the challenge of facing Adelaide, it's a game we have to win."

The ejection of imported centre Krista Phillips was the talking point from the Bendigo game. Phillips earned two tech fouls in the seconds before and after the half-time buzzer for screaming at the referees after she missed two physically contested lay-ups.

Not only was Phillips ejected from the game, but Spirit star Deanna Smith (30 points, 12 of 12 free throws) made all four subsequent free throws, extending the Spirit's lead to six points at half-time.

Wright said after the Bendigo game that the loss of Phillips hurt but the biggest problem had been the Rangers' repeated misses from both lay-ups and open shots.

"Those misses have cost us in our losses - now we are probably relying on other teams to win games for us to make the finals."

Centre Louella Tomlinson started the Bendigo game after Phillips had struggled with injury during the week and Tomlinson kept that position against the Waves.

Wright said the starting centre position would be up for grabs at training this week.

The win handed the Spirit the season series over the Rangers.

■ Australian Opals and Fenerbahce star Penny Taylor was named European Player of the Year by respected website Eurobasket.com last week. Taylor starred for the Dandenong Rangers in the WNBL before moving overseas.