NBL1 West Recap | Thursday Women's Round 15

Round 15 in the NBL1 West Women's Division began on Thursday night with Ash Isenbarger putting up 31 points to help the Lakeside Lightning to an important and thrilling win over the Kalamunda Eastern Suns.

It was a big game for both teams at Ray Owen Sports Centre with each of them coming into Round 15 on 4-8 records and trying to break into the top four, but with Isenbarger and Emma Clarke, the Lightning had that little bit more firepower than the Eastern Suns.

That saw Lakeside record the 81-75 victory over Kalamunda to improve to 5-8 on the season while the Eastern Suns are now 4-9.

Round 15 continues in the NBL1 West Women's Division on Friday night with the Perry Lakes Hawks playing the Willetton Tigers at Bendat Basketball Centre, and the Lakeside Lightning backing up at home against the Joondalup Wolves.

The Rockingham Flames are also at home at Mike Barnett Sports Complex to the South West Slammers as championship winning captain, and new mother, Chelsea Petrik makes her first appearance of the season in what is her 300th game.

The Cockburn Cougars also play the Warwick Senators on Friday night at Wally Hagan Stadium.

Then on Saturday, the Joondalup Wolves are hosting the Perry Lakes Hawks at HBF Arena with the Warwick Senators facing the East Perth Eagles at Warwick Stadium, the Willetton Tigers taking on the Cockburn Cougars at Willetton Basketball Stadium, and the Kalamunda Eastern Suns at home to the Mandurah Magic.

NBL1 WEST – 2021 WOMEN'S SEASON
ROUND 15 – THURSDAY NIGHT

KALAMUNDA EASTERN SUNS 75 lost to LAKESIDE LIGHTNING 81

There was plenty at stake coming into Thursday night's clash between the Kalamunda Eastern Suns and Lakeside Lightning as they try to break into the top eight, and both teams played like that.

The Thursday night battle at Ray Owen Sports Centre opened Round 15 in the NBL1 West Women's Division and had the added ingredient of Craig Mansfield now back coaching the Eastern Suns up against the Lightning team he built up to win a championship in 2018.

He also had former Lightning players Mel Moyle, Mia Jacobs, Ellyce Ironmonger, Sam Roscoe, Alex Bell and Lizel Buckley in his new team at the Suns so it was a game that had plenty of fascination to it.

Ultimately, what mattered most was the result with both teams entering the game outside the top eight with 4-8 records as they try to chase down the Perry Lakes Hawks who are eighth currently at 5-7.

The Lightning made a hot start with their two Perth Lynx stars Ash Isenbarger and Emma Clarke hitting threes to open proceedings, but by quarter-time the Eastern Suns had worked their way on top to lead 24-18 on the back of two Rebecca Motroni triples to close the term.

Mia Jacobs then put Kalamunda up 27-18 but Lakeside threes to Mikayla Pirini and Isenbarger soon steadied the visitors, and they were able to turn that into a narrow 43-40 half-time advantage.

It remained a tight game throughout the second half with Lakeside only clinging to a one-point lead by three quarter-time and then the lead continued to seesaw for much of the fourth quarter.

Scores were all level with just under a minute to go when Mia Jacobs scored for the Eastern Suns, but then Lakeside teenager Kyrah Daniels hit a free-throw and then set up the game-winning three from Isenbarger and the Lightning went on to win 81-75.

It was an entertaining and physical encounter with Lakeside's Emma Clarke copping a big knock in the second quarter from Ellyce Ironmonger, but being able to return to the floor but Mikayla Pirini didn’t after taking a hit to her ribs with seven minutes to go.

After a tough shooting weekend where she went 5/29 from beyond the arc, Ash Isenbarger turned match-winner for Lakeside delivering 31 points, 12 rebounds and three assists while hitting 6/12 from beyond the arc on this occasion.

Emma Clarke shook out the cobwebs to deliver 23 points and six rebounds as well while hitting 3/4 from deep with Savannah Coleman contributing seven points and three rebounds, Kyrah Daniels seven points, 12 assists and nine boards, and Tayah Morgan six points.

Craig Mansfield is back coaching the Eastern Suns this season, but for years at Lakeside was happy to see Isenbarger hit winning shots just like that one.

"Ash was fantastic and so was Emma Clarke, and it might have been a brave effort from us but if you start giving too many gold stars for that, that's how you become a poor team," Mansfield said.

"Morale victories and working hard are one thing, but what really counts is winning some games of basketball and we weren’t able to get over the hump tonight.

"I think if you rewind it back to when we played Eagles, since that Senators-Cougars weekend our form has ticked up a little bit and it was a bit better again tonight, and it has been a bit better the last two weekends but not enough to get the job done."

Sam Roscoe finished the night with 16 points and 13 rebounds for the Eastern Suns, Mia Jacobs 16 points, eight boards and four blocked shots, Mel Moyle 11 points, Ellyce Ironmonger nine points, six rebounds and five assists, Rebecca Motroni nine points and three assists, and Jewel Williams eight points and five assists.

It wasn’t quite enough for Mansfield and his Suns to get over the line and he knows they now likely face the prospect of needing to win their remaining five games to reach the playoffs.

"I think nine wins is probably what will be enough to get through so that gives them five and we have four, and we have five games. I don’t see any game as not winnable and none as not losable so we just have no margin now," Mansfield said.

"We have to play really well the rest of the way and I think nine wins is the mark that will get you through. But the way this season has worked out with it only going 19 games, the reality is some teams have some pretty easy opposition a couple of times and that doesn’t help the fixture, but that's just the way it is. 

"The way it worked out, our doubles are Wolves, Eagles, Tigers, Senators, Cougars and Hawks so we basically play the top teams twice and the rest of the teams once. But it doesn’t matter what your schedule is, if you can't win enough games to get in you're not good enough anyway. The big picture for us is to get our program to a point where we are contenders and not just making up the numbers should we make it."

It has been a challenging season from the outside for Mansfield's return to the helm at the Eastern Suns. He took the Suns to a Grand Final back in 2013 and then built up the Lightning from wooden spooners when he took over to champions in 2018, and still regular season champions in 2019.

He decided to step away after that 2019 season from Lakeside and while happy to be back at Kalamunda where he and his family have such a strong connection, it's a season that's never quite gone to plan and not once have they had their full squad together.

"Court split her patella tendon in February and then tried to push through, and ended up calling it a couple of weeks ago after we had tried different things to help her play through it," he said.

"Sam came back from Germany with a bit of an ankle and we were hoping to get her cortisone done over one of the weekends off, but we couldn’t so she missed a game. Ellyce and Jewel have carried issues too so it has been a challenging season but there have been some positives. 

"It has been great to have Mel back and given she hasn’t played in three years and we've been building her conditioning, her performance has been really good. Alex Bell has stepped in and done a really good job for us too. 

"It's all part of it but we'd want to hope to be healthier in future years which means girls have to either get themselves healthier or we have to change how we approach somethings. You can't be a serious team if you're changing your line-up every single week."

It does feel like a homecoming for Mansfield to be back with Kalamunda but his immediate focus is now on Casey Mihovilovich and the Mandurah Magic on Saturday.

"It definitely has felt like coming back home, but in the same sense there are a lot of different people from last time I was here. I did WABL here last year and very much enjoyed it, and have found it very enjoyable coming back," Mansfield said.

"Now what we do is focus on Mandurah and work out what we're going to do. We'll have an online film session on Saturday to try and review a bit of this game, and have a bit of a look at Mandurah to see how we'll go. 

"The things that generally hurt us aren’t rocket science, like tonight our on-ball defence wasn’t good enough and it doesn’t matter what scheme you're in if you can't stop the ball. If you can't stop dribble penetration you won't win. 

"Casey Milo is amazing too and this will be our only time playing her and Mandurah this year. She might just miss breaking the record this season now so she'll have to go again which will be great for the league. But when you look at here, it's the tireless work she puts in that has allowed her to play for so long."