THE Bendigo Bank Spirit remains hopeful that forward Hanna Zavecz will be fit to take on the AIS in round 17 of the Women’s National Basketball League next Sunday.Zavecz was forced from the court with just 1:11 remaining in the final quarter of Friday night’s 73-67 win against the Sydney Uni Flames at the Schweppes Centre.The 23-year-old, who is averaging 6.2 points and 4.6 rebounds per game, suffered a hyper-extended back in a rebounding contest.Zavecz, in her first season with the Spirit, has already missed six games this season because of an earlier back injury.“Hanna has been sensational for us since she has come back from Christmas,” Spirit coach Bernie Harrower said yesterday.“We certainly need her out on the floor because we can’t afford to have another one of our talls go down with an injury.“We will have to see how she pulls up over the next few days because we just hope this hasn’t aggravated her old back injury.“We will be doing everything possible to make sure she is playing next week, and if that means she doesn’t train during the week, we will have to go with that.”Friday night’s victory consolidated the Spirit’s hold on fifth spot as Bendigo improved its record to 10-8 with its third consecutive victory.The Spirit was never headed by Sydney Uni, and despite several times threatening to break the game open, at one stage leading by 15 during the second quarter, Bendigo was unable to shake the persistent Flames.“It was a bit of a battle for us, but in the end it was a good, hard-fought win,” Harrower said.“I didn’t think we played at our best, but it was credit to Sydney for that because they certainly made it difficult.“But to come away with a six-point win, I’ll take that any day.”With the victory, the Spirit now sits two wins ahead of the sixth-placed Sydney Uni (8-11), although Bendigo does have a game in hand on the Flames, who were yesterday beaten by Bulleen.Bendigo’s four remaining games of the regular season are against bottom side AIS (home), Sydney Uni (away), Dandenong (away) and Townsville (home).Of those four games, the third-placed Townsville is the only side that sits above the Spirit on the ladder.A win against the AIS next Sunday at the Schweppes Centre would create the Spirit’s best winning streak in its short history, with Bendigo having never won more than three straight games.Bendigo’s past three wins - over Sydney Uni, Adelaide (by six points) and Dandenong (two) - have all been against sides that played in the finals last year. “Our form has been fairly good, we just sometimes have those defensive lapses that allow those easy baskets,” Harrower said.“If we can get that out of our game, look out come finals time because I think we can certainly shape what happens.”