TAKING over a one-win team and leading them back to the SBL finals has been a good achievement in itself for Craig Mansfield as coach of the Lakeside Lightning but he wants to make sure his team doesn't go out with a whimper against the Willetton Tigers.

Following a year out of coaching in the Women's SBL in 2015 following a strong stint at the helm of the Kalamunda Eastern Suns, Mansfield got back to the sidelines this year in charge of the Lightning and it was a big job after they won just the one game last year.

However, there was still several members of the 2014 grand final team there and a good young group developing beneath.

When Mansfield was able to lure Alison Schwagmeyer back to the SBL and sign Devanny King, he had at his disposal a good group and the end result was a sixth placed finish and an 11-11 record heading into the quarter-final match up with the Tigers.

Lakeside did well to only trail by four points in Game 1 at half-time last Friday at Willetton Basketball Stadium, but things came apart after the break with the Tigers holding them to just 14 points and going on to win emphatically, 101-58.

Week 1 Friday night Women's SBL Quarter Final wrap 

Game 2 will now take place at Lakeside Recreation Centre and Mansfield wants his team to find something after how disappointing last week's second half was.

He would feel unfulfilled about 2016 if they went out in two games without giving a good account of themselves despite the quality of the opponent.

"I'm really happy with the girls and proud of how the season went out. I definitely don't want to go out without giving more of a fight, though, and I don’t think we will," Mansfield said.

"We need to be more competitive and we need to put our hands up to show that we deserve to be here to validate what we've achieved this year.

"Certainly we've improved and we've got some different players and some girls have improved, and I've learned a lot about the girls. It's been a good year and I don’t have any complaints."

Winning Game 2 certainly won't be an easy task for the Lightning, but the great positive is if they are able to force a decider back at Willetton on Saturday, Lakeside will have some momentum and Mansfield knows all the pressure will be on the Tigers.

"The good thing for us is that if we are able to force a Game 3 hopefully we carry a bit of momentum and keep attacking, and running. The main dynamic for us in a Game 3 is that they are higher seed, it's their home court and the pressure would be on them," he said.

"We can play freely and just go for it, and see what happens. That would be the main dynamic and we saw that in Game 7 of the NBA with the Warriors and Cavs, not that I'm comparing us to them."

The Lightning did well in the first half last Friday and executed well offensively nailing seven three-pointers to only trail by four points. But things came apart in the second half with turnovers galore and Lakeside having no answer at either end for Willetton's size, quality and depth.

As a result, Mansfield wants his players to focus on improving defensively and he'll put his mind to finding ways for them to execute better offensively.

"I was actually surprised when we had 27 turnovers and a lot of them were from driving and dishing into hands, and not making good decisions in the half-court and they were excellent defensively," Mansfield said.

"They rebounded really well, their on-ball screen defence was really good and they were fantastic. The girls need to focus 80 per cent of their thought on defence now this week and us coaches need to look at that too, but we need to look at how they guarded us and if I can put us in better positions offensively."

The Tigers and Lightning also met in the second last week of the regular season and on that night Schwagmeyer had a remarkable first quarter with 19 points.

However, she only scored nine points over the last three quarters that night and just seven last Friday so Mansfield wants to find ways to turn that around again for his star this weekend.

"They've got over on-balls with her quite well and I don’t think she's necessarily got all her reads correct off that," he said.

"Some of it is definitely about where we can put Ali so she can get a touch and a good situation, but some of it is about if they are going to bend their defence out of shape to cover her then there must be an opening elsewhere.

"I really want to balance that, I don’t want Ali thinking she has to score 30 or get 20 shots for us to have an opportunity because in some ways that makes their job a bit easier. It's my job to give her some more opportunities and explain what reads they are giving her, but we need to be better outside of her and around her as well."

The size of Zoe Harper, Louella Tomlinson and Emma Lobb caused the Lightning all sorts of trouble last Friday. While Lakeside can't do much about the size difference, Mansfield would like to see his team do things better to overcome that potential game-winning facet for the Tigers again.

"Zoe Harper was fantastic in the first half. I think she had 21 at the half and she was really, really good. We had a plan of putting a bit of pressure on but we weren’t able to get as much early pressure as we wanted," Mansfield said.

"Malpass and Napier did a fantastic job of handling the ball and they lobbed it in, and some of our weakside defence was really poor. For my girls with their height and bodies, going one out with Harper is a tough ask to keep her off the block so it's all about restricting the flow of the ball and helping. We did a poor job of that.

"We need to explain to some of the girls that if you are in a good position and have a bit of contact, then hold it but if she has you where she wants you, there's no point wrestling with her. It's probably better conceding position and trying to get to the front and make them lob it.

"We just have to be better and there wasn’t a defensive situation we were good at from rebounding to on-ball D to on-ball screens to weakside help. That's a learning from us but it's a new season and that's good competition, and we have to try and go to their level. We have to rise to the occasion on Friday."

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by June Halliday