Spirit out to douse the Flames

The Spirit and the Flames are chasing their maiden wins as the opening week of the Chemist Warehouse WNBL continues in Townsville.

|The Villawood Properties Bendigo Spirit were humbled by the Jayco Southside Flyers on Thursday night, while the Brydens Sydney Uni Flames were ruing missed opportunities after leading but eventually falling to the Deakin Melbourne Boomers.

Come Saturday afternoon, either Tracy York (Spirit) or Katrina Hibbert (Flames) will be a relieved coach after their first win of the #WNBL20.

Spirit captain Tessa Lavey says her young team will look to put lessons learned from the loss into practice against Sydney.

“We’re a young group and I think the first game was always going to be a challenge for us regardless of whether we played Southside or any other team. Now we have it out of the way, we’ll learn a lot and get used to the pace, I think the girls will understand the pace a bit better,’’ she said.

“I didn’t think we played well, a lot of our shots didn’t drop and hopefully against Sydney that will happen for us and get a bit more ball movement as well.”

Carley Ernst had a busy night against the Flyers, matching up on Liz Cambage while grabbing 8 boards and scoring 16 points of her own.

“I was really proud of Carley,” Lavey said.

“She did a really good job on Liz and then took it at her down the offensive end as well. It was super important, and I think Carley’s going to have a great season. She’s really focused, wants to do well and wants the team to do well.”

Sydney led Melbourne early in their season opener but efficiency proved costly and will be a big focal point on Saturday according to Flames coach Katrina Hibbert.

“We had some breakdowns but on the whole there were a lot of positives and I think if we put the ball in the hole more consistently that will go a long way,’’ she said.

“A big focus for us on today (Friday) was looking at some video and working on how we can grow the things we did do well (against Melbourne) and add to that against Bendigo.”

It’s a big weekend for the Flames who back up on Sunday afternoon against the Flyers.

Megan Hustwaite is a freelance contributor to WNBL.com.au

Broadcast Details
Villawood Properties Bendigo Spirit vs Brydens Sydney Uni Flames
Played at Townsville Stadium
Saturday 14 November 2020
2pm AEST / 3pm AEDT
LIVE on Kayo