Australia coach Sandy Brondello said during the week, in reference to Liz Cambage, that one great player does not a great team make. Brondello was particularly thankful for that on Saturday night, when the Opals were forced to play over half their Commonwealth Games gold medal match against England without the dominant 6ft 8in forward after she controversially got herself ejected.

Confusion reigned at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre midway through the second quarter as Cambage stood waiting on the foul-throw line following a clash with England’s Azania Stewart. She was called for an unsportsmanlike foul, which was quickly followed by a technical foul. It appeared she said something and tossed the ball away, neither of which curried favour with the referees. The combination of the two sanctions were enough to end her night.

Kelsey Griffin replaced her to take the free-throws while Cambage, who initially went over to the Australia bench, took off down the tunnel, giving a cheering home crowd a two-handed wave and sporting a wide grin. It ended jovially enough, but the incident was unedifying and hardly a good look for a Games gold medal match. It also had the potential to jeopardise Australia’s chances of backing up their success the only other time basketball has featured at a Commonwealth Games, in Melbourne 10 years ago.

In the end, Cambage’s ejection had little bearing on the outcome of the match. By the time of her departure, she had already stamped her mark on proceedings and her team-mates were, as their coach had suggested, more than capable of carrying the flag without her.

Cambage was on court for just under nine minutes, but in that time she racked up 10 points, a third of her team’s total by the time she left with the Opals 30-17 up. She is undoubtedly the bedrock on which this team is built and she laid the foundations for victory early on as the ball often found her under the basket, not missing a single one of her five shots. England seemingly had no answer to her physical presence in the paint.

But foundations are not always sound, and there was still work to do for the host nation against a gritty, determined England side who faced a partisan crowd, save for their male team-mates who did their best to make their presence felt in the stands. Stewart, the 6ft 5in centre, was particularly impressive, not just in ruffling Cambage’s feathers, but also at the other end where she top scored with 13 points.

“Liz is a great high level player, we just tried to frustrate her,” Stewart said afterwards. “Our main goal was to cut her down. Two technical fouls though that’s nothing to do with us, that’s refereeing. She’s a big presence, she’s their leading scorer, so obviously it helped us.”

Despite the disruption of the ejection, the Opals were not put off their stride. Griffin and Cayla George came to the fore, both ending on 16 points with eight and 10 rebounds respectively, and after the half-time break, Australia asserted their superiority and eased well clear of their opponents.

“We had to [step up], myself and Kelsey Griffin,” said George. “We needed to step up with the points that she would probably be getting. It gave us an opportunity. We’re all professionals, this isn’t our first rodeo.”

When asked if the incident affected them in a negative way, she added: “Not at all. Stuff like this happens and I think we did a good job.”

It was not quite the 118-55 trouncing of Monday, when these two teams met in the pool stage, but it wasn’t far off. Australia simply were by far the best team of this tournament, a sentiment echoed by Stewart. “They’re a great team, really world class. They deserved it,” she said. “They played beautiful basketball. I’m happy to lose to them.”

The prospect of an Australian double is very much alive after the men’s team registered a resounding 103-46 win over Scotland earlier in the day. A solid perimeter defence and a balanced attack helped the Boomers into a final against Canada, who had booked their place in thrilling fashion with a three-point buzzer-beater to see off New Zealand.