If it looked like the UC Capitals celebrated Nicole Munger's 50th game with gusto last round it's because they did.
While the milestone might be on the smaller scale of games played, in a league where Kelly Wilson is approaching her 467th appearance, the achievement was mighty and full of added significance given the 27-year-old has fought a private health battle, which has turned her face and lips blue, this season.
Munger has undergone extensive testing, including scans on her heart and lungs in both the nation's capital and Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, as she experienced the lingering effects of long COVID and pneumonia, which she suffered last winter.
Closely monitored by club doctors and external practitioners, Munger was cleared to play but has been on managed minutes, unable to play more than four and a half a quarter, for the majority of the WNBL season.
Now on the improve, she has chosen to share her story with ESPN.
"It's not easy to see someone go blue and look as terrible as I did but my teammates have been really, really incredible and so have the medical and coaching teams, management, the whole club," she says.
"My parents, being so far away in America, they were really nervous there for a while but they know I've got great people around me here.
"It's a health thing so it's bigger than basketball, the Caps were quick to recognise that and I'm so thankful. It has been scary, its sucks but I've got to keep doing what I love which is play basketball and for that I'm really grateful."
It was off the back of a breakout season with Newcastle in NBL1 East in 2022 that Munger earned a WNBL contract with the Caps midway through the 2022-23 season.
A prolific three-point shooter, she was an instant hit - workhorse, great teammate, fan favourite - Munger ticked all the boxes and was asked to return the following season then the one after that.
"I was just happy to finish that first season and when they asked me back, I was like 'whoa!'," she recalls.
Back in Newcastle, Munger was crowned conference MVP and led the Falcons to the 2024 championship.
She contracted COVID in June then was floored by pneumonia. She might have sat out a practice, but never missed a game.
"It was a really bad bout of pneumonia, and I knew something was funky then. I went back to the States after NBL1 and it was summer so I thought I'd heal there, go in the ocean," Munger explains.
"I rested, felt really good when I got back to Canberra and when we started running in the pre-season, we did the yoyo and I felt really bad. I got really far but I had to stop, I was going to fall over. It would start with my fingers and toes and work to my centre, I couldn't feel anything. It didn't feel like jelly, I couldn't feel a thing.
"That was scary. It kept happening, too consistently for my liking, then my teammates started picking up on it: 'you know when you have that happen, you're blue'."
A lack of oxygen supply to her lungs would turn her lips blue.
Teamwork, like on court, was crucial off it.
Coach Paul Goriss, club doctor Dr Kylie Shaw and her medical team and the physios engaged with other medical professionals to get Munger the help she needed.
The scans came back clear, which was positive but left questions unanswered. Hooked up on a treadmill or exercise bike, Munger would run herself ragged but not turn blue.
Medical testing couldn't replicate an elite level basketball game and the intensity and complete mental focus and strain that comes with it. She felt fine.
"The tests are designed for 50-year-old smokers not elite athletes," she explains.
"I was passing them with flying colours and they'd say 'It's hard to tell what's going on because your lungs are so strong to start with'.
"If I wasn't a basketballer, I wouldn't have known that I was having these issues because it doesn't happen in everyday life, it just happens in those top 5% of exertions. It was predictable enough that I could tell when it was coming on."
Enter the Pulsometer.
Munger would slip her finger into the device which would measure her blood oxygen levels.
"If it jumped below 95, I was done," she said of her playing status.
On November 17, the Caps were in Melbourne to play Southside Flyers.
"I didn't know if I was going to make it through the warm-up let alone first quarter, second quarter," Munger says.
"Against Southside I only made it through one stint, I came off and the level was 89 but I felt fine, doctor's orders and I never fought them because they were letting me play.
"Usually, I can play 35 minutes comfortably but getting up to 25 has been a struggle."
Goriss, an Australian Opals and WNBA assistant coach, says Munger is one of the most competitive, hardworking players, with a determination to get better, that he's come across.
While she was constantly in Goriss' thoughts as he coached from the sidelines, his assistants were on the case.
"God bless Tracey (Wightman) and Aidan (Barnett) they are like hawks on me when I'm on the court," Munger laughs.
"I know the signs now, so I try to give them a heads up when it's coming, I'm just getting a bit winded and it's hard to make basketball decisions when you get to that point of exhaustion."
When the Caps lost to Perth by 1 point in November, Munger had played heavy minutes down the stretch of a close contest and her lips turned blue.
Post game, she told Goriss it was time her teammates knew the whole story.
"She's a trojan and that's what took Munger back. We had a team meeting about what the situation was and I think it was a wake up call to me and to all of us about how quick basketball can be taken away," he says.
"For all of us, it made us appreciate how special it is to play basketball, play in the WNBL and play for the Caps, everyone took that on board - that we have to do this for ourselves, each other and our families because you just don't know when that day could come, it could be sooner rather than later.
"I think that was the biggest thing for Munger - not knowing how quickly it could be taken away if it was a long-term medical condition."
The experience has also helped Munger tackle a fear and hone a new skill.
"I'm not a super great talker, I don't like talking in front of groups so for me it's a lot harder to tell my teammates things, I'm a bit shy.
"It's easier for me to show them but the hidden growth in all this is that I've had to learn how to talk better, learn to communicate, be a lot more open and honest even with the doctors and coaching staff.
"There's been a lot of growth points for me which is really cool."
Christmas came early for Munger when she graduated from her routine testing, she says she hasn't had the sensations in her body for several weeks.
"I'm feeling a lot better, I know I get a bit tired but tired is fine," she says.
In her 50th game last Friday night, Munger sunk a season-high 24 points, including six triples, and most importantly celebrated with a win.
Then on Sunday, she doubled her first-quarter minutes clocking eight and a half against Geelong, in another victory.
The Caps have begun the New Year on a winning run and Munger is playing, and more importantly feeling, well.
"It's easy to look at this whole thing as a negative but I like to flip it and make it a positive," she says.
"How amazing my teammates are and the club. Yeah, what I've been through is crap but I'm thankful to be here in Canberra, everything led me here."