THE Lakeside Lightning hit a tough run losing 13 matches in succession but they remained positive and the reward came last weekend with not only the drought breaking victory, but a second 24 hours later.

After winning their fourth game of the season back on April 23 at home to the Goldfields Giants, the Lightning lost their next 13 matches including heartbreakers against the Kalamunda Eastern Suns in overtime, the Joondalup Wolves and the Mandurah Magic.

The fact Lakeside has been able to perform strongly against the top two teams the Cockburn Cougars and Joondalup Wolves show that it was better than losing 13 straight, but it was becoming a heavy burden to carry around.

That all ended last Friday night with the Lightning taking out a 105-99 victory on the road to the Eastern Suns and the relief and confidence from that delivered a 99-91 win at home on Saturday night over the playoff bound Perth Redbacks.

The most impressive aspect of the weekend was that on Friday against Kalamunda it was Daniel Grida (25 points, five steals, two assists, two blocks), TJ Hallice (26 points, seven rebounds) and Tom Parkinson (24 points, five boards) leading the way.

Then on Saturday against Perth, Daniel Alexander proved unstoppable with 35 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists and three blocked shots to wrap up the SBL Player of the Week award.

Coach Sam Oatman still saw areas to improve on Friday against the Eastern Suns, but in the end he was just relieved to come away with the win.

"We played with energy, effort, and a lot of toughness down the stretch. I was really pleased with our defensive effort. We guarded for 48 minutes which is why we won," Oatman said.

"I would’ve liked to see us make our FT’s and take better care of the ball, but we’ll take the win. I’m really proud of the guys for sticking together through all this adversity this season. They’re playing for each other and it was nice to see them rewarded for their efforts."

Then on Saturday night, Oatman was delighted to see the Lightning back up their drought breaking win with another strong performance.

It was even more satisfying to get over the line against a team that will play finals, and that won comfortable the previous week over the Mandurah Magic without Michael Vigor and Joel Wagner.

"The Redbacks were missing two key players, but again I was really proud of the way we played. We were tough, unselfish, and committed to the defensive end," he said.

"We’ve proven we can play with anyone in this league, but winning games is a whole different story. I tell my team all the time, there’s a big difference between playing to play and playing to win. I was really proud of them for closing out two tough teams on back-to-back nights."

The Lightning are now looking to try and make it three wins in-a-row this Friday night when hosting the South West Slammers at Lakeside Lightning.

Oatman knows that with Tre Nichols back after a weekend off following surgery on his broken nose that his team needs to do a good job of making sure he doesn’t deliver a match-winning performance.

"We need to make things as difficult for Tre as possible," Oatman said.

"Hopefully, we can limit his touches somewhat and make other guys beat us. We need to stay hungry and confident."

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by Mick Cronin