BENDIGO Spirit star Nadeen Payne believes a run of three consecutive home can be the spark that ignites her side’s WNBL season.
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The Spirit head into a week four encounter against Adelaide Lightning at Bendigo Stadium in seventh spot at 1-4.
New glamour team Melbourne Boomers lead the pack on 4-1, ahead of Adelaide Lightning and defending champions Sydney Uni Flames, both on 3-1.
A taxing early season schedule has taken the Spirit to Canberra, Geelong, Perth and Adelaide, with only one of the team’s first five games having been played at home.
Payne, who has enjoyed a stellar start to the season, said the Spirit could not wait to get back on court in front of a home crowd.
“It will be good to come back home and show Bendigo what we have got,” she said.
“We had that one game against Perth and obviously people can tell from that we are playing some exciting basketball – it’s up-tempo, it’s fun.
“I’m excited for the community to get behind us and come out and see the new-look Spirit.”
The clash against the Lightning will be followed by games against Melbourne Boomers on November 4 and Sydney Uni Flames on November 9.
The Spirit will make do without their star import Betnijah Laney in at least the first of those matches after the American sprained her knee in last Saturday night’s overtime loss to the Lightning.
Payne described the incident as shocking to watch, but was grateful for no recurrence of the ACL injury that previously stalled Laney’s WNBA career.
“You never want to see anyone, your team mate or the opposition player, go down like that,” she said.
“I have done my ACL before and she did it 18 months ago.
“It was pretty brutal; we handled a lot of adversity in that Adelaide game.”
Payne, who is in her second season with the Spirit and 10th overall in the league, is enjoying her best season to date.
She is averaging a career high 16 points per game, well above her career average of 7.79.
The 24-year-old said after two years in Spirit coach Simon Pritchard’s system, she had grown far more comfortable with her role in the team.
“Simon’s much more confident in myself too and my abilities, which is nice,” she said.
“I’m happy and pretty content with how I’ve started – I’ve worked on being a lot more consistent.
“Probably one area I need to improve on is my fouling as I have fouled out in two out of five games.”
Payne also credits her winter spent in the Queensland Basketball League, where she averaged 19.95ppg, 10.05rpg and 1.95apg for the runner-up Mackay Meteorites, and experience with Australia’s FIBA 3×3 World Championships team in France, in helping her make improvements to her game.