LAKESIDE Lightning Women's coach Craig Mansfield and Stirling Senators mentor Glenn Clarke were both pleased with how their teams fought back over Week 8 of the 2016 season with the Rockingham Flames continuing to be impressive even when not at full strength.

Week 8 of the 2016 Women's SBL season saw the Lightning make it consecutive victories by beating the Mandurah Magic by 10 points at Lakeside Recreation Centre on Friday night.

The Lightning did have to respond to a poor start to the game, though, and while coach Craig Mansfield was happy with the response, he would much prefer going forward they don’t put themselves in positions where that's required.

However, overall it was a strong win that he was happy with against a Magic team that is fighting hard even in the absence of Casey Mihovilovich and Bree Klasztorny.

"We were disappointed with the energy and intensity we started the game with. This combined with a lack of spacing and ball movement offensively resulted in us really struggling for the opening quarter," Mansfield said.

"I thought Mandurah started the game fantastically, were very good defensively and executed well on offence and Adams played excellent early.

"I was really impressed with how well Magic played with Mihovilovich and Bree Klasztorny still to return, further evidenced the next night with a three quarter-time lead against Flames. It will be a massive challenge playing them later in the season away.

"The last three quarters of our game we did a fairly good job. A few players coped well with foul trouble and some players stepped into the rotation to cover and did a great job. Our defensive pressure and early offence was much better for the remainder of the night.

"Most pleasing for the coaches was with the disappointment and stress of how the first quarter was tracking the girls stayed together and didn't panic, there was no finger pointing. This shows team chemistry, maturity and progress in our development."

The Senators' weekend got off to a tough start at home to the Willetton Tigers scoring just five points in the second half, and none in the fourth quarter to lose by 35 points.

That left plenty of soul searching to be done before hitting the road to take on the Kalamunda Eastern Suns on Saturday night. And coach Glenn Clarke was delighted with the response to come away with the 21-point victory to improve his team to a 4-6 record to remain in the top eight.

"The Stirling WSBL team came away with a loss and a win from the double-header last weekend. The Willetton game saw Stirling push the Willetton girls till half time but the wheels fell off in the second half. But it showed the Stirling Women's team is capable at playing at that level," Clarke said.

"The most important job the coaching staff had to do was get have the girls back from the loss from Willetton and the next night play Eastern Suns who beat Stirling by four in their last encounter.

"The Stirling women bounced back hard and took the game out by 21 points. All the girls played well and now understand the four quarters to win are vital."

Meanwhile, the Flames won a ninth straight match to retain top spot in the Women's SBL after beating the Perth Redbacks by 17 points on Friday night on the road, and then the Mandurah Magic by seven points at Rockingham on Saturday night.

The Flames were still without Darcee Garbin and Ifunanya Ibekwe, but with Sami Whitcomb tremendous and then Amanda Pether and Ashlee Sidebottom putting in two strong performances, coach Ryan Petrik was pleased with the team's performances to take out the two wins.

"Really happy to get two wins, even if they weren’t super convincing. As we tell the girls every year, we’re pacing ourselves for August and nobody’s handing out the trophy in May, so just grab the wins and move on," Petrik said.

"Obviously we’re missing a couple of pieces, but we’ve had some girls step up really well in their absence. Lizel Buckley has been playing out of position for us without Garbin and Ibekwe; Pether and Sidebottom combined for 30 in the game against Redbacks.

"We’ve been starting 16-year-old Ari Hetherington for the last month or so, and she’s been really solid defensively. Help arrives next week, so it’s important they grab the opportunities whilst they’re there."

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Mick Cronin