STAR centre Gabe Richards is confident the Bendigo Bank Spirit has the talent and determination to turn the tables on recent nemesis Sydney Uni Flames.
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The Spirit and Flames meet for the third time this WNBL season on Saturday night in Sydney.
The Sydneysiders hold a 2-0 advantage over the Spirit during 2016-17, despite little separating the sides.
Six points was the margin in their last game on November 25, with the Flames prevailing in overtime, led by Australian Opals star Leilani Mitchell (18 points, 11 assists).
Richards, who is averaging 8.6 points and 5.3 rebounds in her ninth season with the Spirit, was anticipating another physical contest against the Flames.
"Their talls are long and athletic, but Asia Taylor likes to play off your body and draw contact and is very aggressive," she said.
"They are obviously good at getting fouls and Leilani can create off anything - she always puts the pressure on not only your point guards, but the bigs as well.
"But they have scoring power right across the court - the last time in Sydney they had girls stepping off the bench and shooting three from everywhere, so it's not just one player."
It's shaping as a big weekend not only for the Spirit, who are in fourth place with an 8-5 record, but also Richards.
The two-time WNBL championship player needs just one rebound to move into ninth place on the all-time league rebounds list.
She also needs just four offensive boards to move into fourth on that all-time list.
Richards said she had no indication the milestones were approaching until she was tagged in a post on Instagram.
"It goes to show the old girl has been around for a while and collected some rebounds along the way," she said.
But the two-time WNBL All Star Five selection would gladly trade the personal accolades for wins against Sydney and Canberra next Friday ahead of the Christmas break.
"To be on target for the season we want to have we need to get these two wins," she said.
"Sydney is certainly a team we want to get a win over as we haven't yet, and Canberra, they've certainly hit their straps in the last couple of weeks and are knocking off some of the top teams.
"They are going to be tough. It's hard yakka into the Christmas break, but we have to stay focused to get those wins."
The clash against the Flames will be the 150th WNBL game for Spirit forward Nadeen Payne, who joined the club after a stint last season with South East Queensland Stars.