A recharged Adelaide Lightning heads to Southside this week hunting its first win of the season, having recently gone toe to toe with the league’s three best teams.
Townsville needed a career night from Abbey Ellis to pull away from Adelaide, while Sydney and Perth both had to come from behind to secure narrow wins in the season’s opening weeks.
Having now faced the competition’s three leading teams, Adelaide has taken a host of lessons from its defeats, and been tireless in its push to break through for a maiden win in WNBL27.
The Flyers will be shorthanded against Adelaide, having made the decision to part ways with import Sakima Walker this week. Former Sydney forward Unique Thompson is set to take her place, but won’t arrive in time to face Adelaide on Sunday.
It means Adelaide’s frontcourt will look to capitalise, with import Maddy Westbeld and Opals standout Zitina Aokuso both improving by the game.
Westbeld (14 points, 12 rebounds) and Aokuso (20 points, 11 rebounds) had a major impact in the club’s narrow loss to Perth, and will look to exploit an inexperienced Flyers frontcourt.
A scrappy Southside outfit currently sits 1-2, having defeated a shorthanded Tasmania at home, while falling to Geelong and Sydney across the opening weeks of the season.
Former Stanford standout Tess Heal has been the driving force, with the 22-year-old averaging 19.6 points per game, supported by rising stars Hannah Hank (14.3 ppg) and Madi Ryan (9.0 ppg).
Tip-off is at 12:30pm ACDT, with the game available to stream live on 9Now and ESPN via Disney+.
Adelaide Lightning fans won’t have to wait long to see the Lightning back on home court, with the team returning to the State Basketball Centre on Saturday 7 November, hosting new franchise Tasmania for the first time.
Headlined by Steph Reid and Darcee Garbin, the Jewels have made an impressive start to life in the WNBL under championship coach Claudia Brassard.
Tip-off is 2:30pm, with tickets available through Ticketek.
Get behind the Lightning and be a part of another exciting afternoon of basketball as the team looks to build momentum in front of its home crowd.
