Griffin ruled out of Mildura clash

9 November 2023 | Bendigo Spirit news

Bendigo Spirit captain Kelsey Griffin has been ruled out of Friday night’s clash against Sydney Flames in Mildura but will be pushing for a return in round three.

Griffin hasn’t featured so far this season because of a hamstring injury but is making good progress towards a long-awaited comeback.

“KG is making more inroads to making her return next week,” Spirit coach Kennedy Kereama said.

The Spirit hit the road on Thursday, bound for Mildura, as they search for their first win of the season against the Flames.

Kereama highlighted turnovers as an area of improvement from Saturday’s loss to reigning WNBL champs Townsville at Red Energy Arena.

“We learned not to turn the ball over 21 times and give them 32 points,” he said.

“Credit to Townsville, they were the better team on the day and they gave us some challenges, but you feel like it’s more self-inflicted.

“There are some areas that we can tidy up within our control and certainly this week has been a focus in on that.

“The encouraging thing is, they’re things that can be improved quickly.”

Kereama spoke highly of the Flames, who are also looking to get off the mark for the season after going down to Perth in their opener last week.

“They’ve put a nice group together,” he said.

“They’ve added Kayla George who’s come off a WNBA championship with the (Las Vegas) Aces.

“They’ve added another WNBA player in Didi Richards, she creates come unique challenges in terms of athletic ability and rebounding.

“Then you add Lauren Nicholson who’s come off a championship season with Townsville Fire, so they’ve got a handful of players who you’ve got to give a certain level of respect to.”

Friday night’s game tips off at 7.30pm in Mildura.