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BENDIGO Spirit will be minus their new import, but will head into Saturday night’s WNBL home season opener against Dandenong Rangers riding a wave of confidence.
A vastly new-look Spirit garnered plenty of momentum with a round one upset over championship favourite Melbourne Boomers and will regain another of their 2018-19 recruits for the clash at Bendigo Stadium.
They can expect the Rangers to be bristling with confidence also, after they travelled to Townsville last weekend to defeat the reigning champions 73-68.
Their clash against the Spirit will be the second of two this weekend for the Rangers, who hosted Sydney Uni Flames on Friday night in a milestone night for former Spirit guard Tessa Lavey, who has notched 150 WNBL games.
The Spirit, however, will be fresh and regain forward-centre Louella Tomlinson from a knee injury.
Coach Simon Pritchard said he expected the Rangers to come out firing in search of a second road win.
“They played really well against Townsville, they took Townsville right out of their groove,” he said.
“They are well coached (by Larissa Anderson) and they will try and take us out of our stuff.
“We can expect a really tough game from Dandenong, even tougher than we’ve had in the past.
“I feel like their coaching staff has really improved with Lori Chizik coming on as an assistant coach. Straight away I saw the difference in their team on the weekend.”
Lavey won’t be the only former Spirit player suiting up for the Rangers, who have signed Betnijah Laney as one of their imports.
The 24-year-old shooting guard was in excellent touch against the Fire and contributed 16 points, 12 rebounds, and five assists in a five point win.
Pritchard said Laney would undoubtedly be eager to impress in her first outing on Bendigo Stadium’s new show court.
The Spirit have plenty of their own in good form following a 10 point victory over the Boomers, led by WNBL team of the week selections Marena Whittle (21 points, 4 rebounds, 4 steals) and Becca Tobin (15 points, 9 rebounds, 5 steals), while Nadeen Payne carried over her great form from a stellar SEABL season to come up with 16 points and five rebounds.
Fresh from her WNBL debut, Tobin said the Spirit would look to back up their impressive defensive effort from last week, which resulted in the Spirit making 16 steals and scoring 17 points from turnovers.
“I think defence is our speciality this year – if we can continue to get stops, anyone on our team can score,” the 195cm centre said.
“Everything was good last week … the atmosphere, and everybody when they came on did their job and played hard.
“There was no lull, when people got subbed on or came off, everyone just pushed through.
“We’ll be a pretty strong team if we can continue that.”
The Spirit will have to wait until next weekend’s away clash against Perth Lynx to unveil new import Barbara Turner, who is awaiting visa clearance to play after only arriving in Bendigo on Thursday.
Tip-off on Saturday night is 7pm.
ROUND ONE RECAP
Bendigo Spirit defeated Melbourne Boomers 82-72; Dandenong Rangers defeated Townsville Fire 68-73; Canberra Capitals defeated Sydney Uni Flames 97-78; Adelaide Lightning defeated Perth Lynx 78-66.
Stats leaders - Spirit: Marena Whittle (21 points, 4 rebounds, 4 steals), Nadeen Payne (16 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals), Becca Tobin (15 points, 9 rebounds, 5 steals); Rangers: Rebecca Cole (18 points, 7 rebounds), Betnijah Laney (16 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists), Tessa Lavey (13 points, 5 assists).