Spirit, Lightning look to respond

November 25, 2020 | WNBL news

“The best part of today is that we’re playing tomorrow.”

So said Adelaide Lightning coach Chris Lucas after his side fell to the Deakin Melbourne Boomers by 40 points in the Chemist Warehouse WNBL on Tuesday night following a week in hotel quarantine.

It’s a sentiment sure to be shared by Bendigo Spirit coach Tracy York. Her team was also on the end of a hefty loss, just a few hours later, at the hands of a red-hot Townsville Fire, 51-99.

Tonight, the Lightning and Spirit go head-to-head in Townsville getting the chance to immediately respond from disappointing defeats.

Adelaide star Ally Wilson says the Lightning will be better for the run.

“I think our first game was always going to be a little bit tough for us. I’m not one to make excuses but you could see we were definitely rusty, we didn’t have much touch around the rim, and we didn’t shoot the ball well,’’ she said.

“At the end of the day, you can train all you want but when you get to match situations it’s different and I think that showed.

“We just didn’t bring our A-game, we didn’t play how we want to play so we’re definitely looking to bounce back tonight.”

Wilson believes a fast start will hold the Lighting in good stead against the Spirit.

“We’ve spoken about coming out super aggressive, offensively and defensively. Now that we’ve got a bit of that rust out of the way for our first game, we should be raring to go.

“We want to focus on our offensive execution a little bit more which was poor at times against Melbourne and we just really want to get back to playing Lightning basketball which is locking down defensively, getting rebounds and running out in open lanes. When we play like that, we’re super hard to stop.

“Expect to see a different Lighting team on the floor tonight.”

Meanwhile in the Spirit camp, captain Tessa Lavey says her young side will zero in on a few key factors as they strive to bank their first victory of #WNBL20.

“We want to focus on the controllable so our energy, our effort and our communication are going to be key for us tonight I think,’’ she said.

“If we can come out with those three things from the start and have a four-quarter effort, that’s the way we want to respond, and I believe we have the group and sort of players who will do that.”

Megan Hustwaite is a freelance contributor to WNBL.basketball

 

Broadcast Details

Villawood Properties Bendigo Spirit vs Adelaide Lightning

Wednesday November 25 2020

8pm AEST / 9pm AEDT

LIVE on Kayo