Kereama excited to bring the Spirit show to Geelong
Bendigo Spirit head coach Kennedy Kereama is excited to bring the show to Geelong this week and represent regional Victoria against Adelaide Lightning on Friday night.
The Spirit will play their first of two games at Geelong Arena this season thanks to a partnership with major partner – the Transport Accident Commission (TAC).
The majority of the group got to Geelong on Wednesday and hosted various school clinics around the region.
“I think the players have enjoyed the clinics, it sounds as though there’s some very large schools with a huge basketball following and they’ve all said they want to come to the game,” Kereama said.
“It’s great that we’re getting out to other parts of regional Victoria and our players are making connections with other basketball fans.
“I think that’s great for us that we’re able to do it.
“We’ve been out to Mildura during the pre-season and now we’re out in Geelong.
“We want to be seen as regional Victoria’s basketball team.”
Bendigo have fond memories of their last outing against the Lightning, having prevailed 70-65 in an overtime epic in Adelaide earlier in the month.
Kereama felt his team had learned a lot from that contest after giving up a double-digit lead in the second half.
“Adelaide have got a lot of key players, Isobel Borlase is playing some good basketball, then they’ve got some experienced veterans like Brianna Turner and Lauren Mansfield,” he said.
“A lot of it is going to come down to team defence and probably for us, we can make improvements because obviously last time we had a pretty solid 15 or 16-point lead and Adelaide made a great run at us.
“Where we can probably be better is, we went a bit away from our game plan last time, particularly defensively.
“We need to make sure we’re really locked in with what we’re supposed to be doing, when we’re supposed to be doing it and why we’re doing it.
“This week’s training has been exceptional, we’ve had a great week on the track.”
It’s a big weekend coming up for the Spirit, who return home to Bendigo on Sunday to face Southside Flyers at Red Energy Arena to cap off a Round 7 double-header.
GAME DETAILS
Spirit v Lightning
Geelong Arena
Friday, December 15
Tip-off at 7.30pm EDT
INJURY LIST
Sophia Locandro: Hamstring, return date TBA
Ella Gordon: Back, return date TBA
SPIRIT ROSTER
You can view the Spirit’s 2023-24 playing roster here
SEASON FIXTURES
You can view the Spirit’s 2023-24 season fixture here
HOW TO WATCH
All games will again be broadcast live, with Wednesday night games (and all finals games) on ESPN (Foxtel, KAYO and Sky Sports NZ), while all other games will be shown on the Nine Network’s free digital channel, 9Now. Internationally all games will be broadcast live on FIBA YouTube.