Lightning look to bounce back against Redbacks (Week 2 Women's SBL Preview)

LAST year's women's SBL grand finalists the Lakeside Lightning had a horror start to their 2015 season with two losses along with losing an import to injury and now they will be looking to quickly bounce back against the Perth Redbacks as part of Week 2 action.

The women's SBL action for Week 2 gets underway with two matches on Friday night that sees the Lakeside Lightning host the Perth Redbacks at Lakeside Recreation Centre, and the Cockburn Cougars tackle the Perry Lakes Hawks at Wally Hagan Stadium. Both matches tip off at 6.30pm.

Then on Saturday night there are three women's SBL matches with the East Perth Eagles playing the South West Slammers at Morley Sport and Recreation Centre and the Stirling Senators batting the Cockburn Cougars at Warwick Leisure Centre. Both matches begin at 6pm.

Then at 6.30pm on Saturday night, the Kalamunda Eastern Suns host the Joondalup Wolves at Ray Owen Sports Centre.

The round then concludes with two matches on Sunday both starting at midday with the Mandurah Magic playing the Stirling Senators at Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre, and the Willetton Tigers facing the East Perth Eagles at Willetton Basketball Stadium.

On Friday night at Lakeside, both the Lightning and Redbacks are looking for their first wins of the season but it shapes as a crucial contest for the home team to get the victory in.

The Redbacks women were competitive last Saturday night in a loss to the Senators, but for the Lightning to lose their opening two fixtures against Cockburn and South West in consecutive days was hardly the way they wanted to start the season.

The Lightning played off in last year's grand final coming up just short against the Rockingham Flames, but now to start the 2015 campaign with three straight losses would leave them with plenty of work to do just to make the playoffs again let alone be a championship contender.

Just to make the job harder for the Lightning was the fact that that new import Christian Shelter suffered a serious knee injury and could face considerable time on the sidelines.

She had a good start to her SBL career with 15 points and 11 rebounds in Saturday's loss to Cockburn but then was limited to just three minutes against the Slammers on Sunday after hurting her knee.

The other Friday night fixture pits two teams who haven’t tasted defeat yet in 2015, the Cougars and Hawks against one another.

Cockburn scored a tremendous 91-73 win over Lakeside last Saturday night on the back of playing-coach Deanna Smith putting in a 38-point performance to earn her Player of the Week honours.

Perry Lakes also got off to a winning start beating the Eagles 73-48 on Friday night so one of the Hawks or Cougars women's teams will be 2-0 to start the season by the end of the evening.

Saturday night then sees the Eagles host the Slammers at Morley and it's going to be a big ask for East Perth to snap its 18-game losing slide against a South West team who started impressively last week.

The Eagles lost their last 16 games of 2014 and then last weekend lost to the Hawks by 25 points and the Flames by 31 to begin Narelle Henry's time in charge as coach. They now host a Slammers team who beat last year's grand finalists Lakeside by 21 points at home last Sunday.

Also on Saturday night, the Cougars back up their clash with the Hawks on Friday night by taking on the Senators at Warwick. Stirling enters the clash coming a 62-44 win over the Redbacks last Saturday at Curtin University Stadium to open their 2015 in fine fashion.

Saturday night's final fixture then pits the Suns up against the Wolves with Kalamunda coming off a tough start to its season last Saturday to the Cougars while Joondalup also went down at home to the Willetton Tigers by 15 points.

On Sunday afternoon, the Magic host the Senators with Mandurah taking part in its only match of the weekend while Stirling will be backing up from hosting the Cougars on Saturday night.

Mandurah started its 2015 season with a 62-49 win on the road to Kalamunda last Friday night and now will be looking to make it two from two, and will be hoping the Senators are still feeling the effects of their clash from Saturday by the time their clash on Sunday tips off at noon.

Sunday's other clash sees the Tigers host the Eagles with Willetton coming off an impressive start to its season last Sunday beating the Wolves 75-60 at Joondalup Basketball Stadium.

The Eagles will be coming off hosting the Slammers on Saturday and already entering the weekend on an 18-game losing run.

WEEK 2 WOMEN'S SBL FIXTURES
FRIDAY
Lakeside Lightning v Perth Redbacks, Lakeside Recreation Centre 6.30pm
Cockburn Cougars v Perry Lakes Hawks, Wally Hagan Stadium 6.30pm

SATURDAY
East Perth Eagles v South West Slammers, Morley Sport and Recreation Centre 6pm
Stirling Senators v Cockburn Cougars, Warwick Leisure Centre 6pm
Kalamunda Eastern Suns v Joondalup Wolves, Ray Owen Sports Centre 6.30pm

SUNDAY
Mandurah Magic v Stirling Senators, Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre 12pm
Willetton Tigers v East Perth Eagles, Willetton Basketball Stadium 12pm

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Mick Cronin




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