Lightning strikes out Rangers

By Glen Atwell
ADELAIDE Lightning exacted winning revenge on the Dandenong Rangers in the knockout semi-final of the Women’s National Basketball League season on Saturday night.
Just a week after Dandenong beat the Lightning 73-69 in the last game of the regular season, Adelaide turned the tables and booted the Rangers from the WNBL finals with a convincing 66-61 win.
The five-point victory thrust Adelaide into a preliminary final against Canberra this weekend, while Dandenong returned home to dream of more success and less injuries next time around. On Saturday night, Adelaide proved too tall and regularly exposed Dandenong’s lack of height and scoring power. Jenna O’Hea was the only Ranger to cause a headache for the Lightning, racking up 28 points and netting 55 per cent of her field attempts.
A week earlier, O’Hea was soundly assisted by Shelley Hammonds, who scored 17 points.
But on Saturday night, Hammonds could muster only seven points against a dominant Adelaide defence.
The five-point winning margin should probably have been more, as Dandenong collected just five offensive rebounds for the entire game and four of those came in the final five minutes of the match. In the first three quarters Hammonds collected Dandenong’s solitary offensive rebound.
In contrast Adelaide amassed 30 defensive rebounds while the Rangers could only grab 22. O’Hea was the game-high scorer, but the problem for Dandenong was a considerable lack of alternate contributors.
Guard Kathleen Macleod was the only other Ranger to score double figures with 11 points, Hammonds was next best with her seven.
Caitlin Ryan and Samantha Richards scored four and five points respectively. It was a game the two co-captains would rather forget.
Ryan had six three-point attempts, but failed to put one through the hoop and Richards could only launch three two-point attempts for the entire game.
For the Lightning, it was Jessica Foley (21 points), Tracy Gahan (18) and Sam Woosnam (17) who scored the match-winning baskets.