Bendigo Spirit will travel across the country this weekend for round five of the 2019-20 WNBL season.
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The team heads to South Australia for a re-match with the Adelaide Lightning.
The Spirit and Lightning first met last week on Friday night, with Bendigo securing a 13-point win over the visitors.
They were then on the road to Melbourne for a match against the Southside Flyers, who defeated them by 13 points 93-80.
Spirit coach Tracy York said the team was firing on all cylinders ahead of the match against Adelaide.
"The team is in a positive space ahead of the weekend," York said.
"Playing Adelaide was a great win for us at home and the first time we had Becca Tobin back in the group."
In the match last Friday the Spirit kept Adelaide to well below their average of 80.4 points per game.
"It was great to keep them 27 points below their average, they wouldn't be happy with how they were shooting," York said.
"Surely they will come out all guns blazing on Saturday night.
"But we are mindful that to increase our defensive efforts, even if they do make more shots than last game, we still need to focus on ourselves and what we can do better."
During the week defence has been a focus as a whole for the team, but also for each individual player to take on a specific role.
"We do a lot of individual defensive drills which focus on footwork and containment, in addition to whole team defence and what we need for certain plays," York said.
"We need them all to be able to contain their own player or at least make the strongest possible effort."
York's role as head coach is bolstered by her assistant Mark Alabakov.
"We did a fantastic job defensively last game," Alabakov said.
"We've been able to recap and re-emphasise the elements that worked for us during the first game and also evolving what we can do defensively."
Looking at the bigger picture of the season, Alabakov was pleased to be part of basketball in Bendigo.
"It's a new era. We're trying to tilt our vision to a different direction compared to years gone by and build a team that plays with ferocity and courage at both ends of the floor," he said.
- Bendigo Spirit v Adelaide Lightning on Saturday at Titanium Security Arena in South Australia. Tip-off 7pm.
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