On the first leg of the Bendigo Spirit’s double header road trip weekend they will fly across the Nullarbor to play the Perth Lynx.
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The Spirit (6-6) will be going into the clash determined to beat the Lynx (8-2) who are currently in first position on the WNBL ladder.
Spirit coach Simon Pritchard said the team would exert all their energy in an effort to defeat the Lynx on Friday night.
“The tiredness and the travel factor from Perth to Canberra means it’s almost a scheduling loss,” Pritchard said.
“It’s almost impossible to run across to the other side of the country to play Canberra afterwards...so we have to put all our eggs on Perth to try and beat the top team.”
Pritchard has called on his players to “step up” and improve the on-court protection of captain Nat Hurst.
“Hurst is being scragged, there’s someone on her shorts the whole time,” Pritchard said.
“It means she’s not available to receive any shots, she can’t do anything.”
Hurst said it was frustrating to not be able to play “my style of game” with a high amount of pressure from opponents.
“Teams know the ball runs through me..they figure if they take me out of the game then our rhythm will be off,” Hurst said.
“Our plan is to implement things this week to rectify the issue.”
In regards to her side’s recent three-straight losses, Hurst said they were in the midst of a rough part of the season.
“We had our high at the start of the season and now we have hit a bit of a low. But it’s about digging ourselves out of the hole and getting back on track,” Hurst said.
Following Perth, the Spirit will head to Canberra where they will play Hurst’s former team the UC Capitals on Sunday.
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