Round 14 Spotlight | Hot starting Hawks hold off Lightning

The Perry Lakes Hawks took a leap towards a playoff berth in the NBL1 West Women's Division on Friday night getting off to a fast start with the size and experience inside, and outside shooting too much for the Lakeside Lightning.

It was always going to be a significant game in the battle for eighth position in the Women's Division as the end of the regular season closes in.

Lakeside, Perry Lakes, the Mandurah Magic and Kalamunda Eastern are all on four wins coming into Round 14 with only one spot appearing available with the top seven teams all at least three wins ahead, so that made Friday's game at Lakeside Recreation Centre massive.

And the Lady Hawks made a flying start with the game's opening seven points which soon became 25-10 just before quarter-time with Millie McCarthy having nailed her third three-pointer already.

McCarthy went on to make a fourth triple of the opening quarter for Perry Lakes to lead by as much as 17, but just 11 by the break.

As hard as Lakeside fought, the size and experience inside of Nat Burton, Megan McKay and Maddie Dennis, and then the back court of McCarthy and Mia Satie kept the Hawks in control most of the rest of the way.

They maintained around a double-digit lead most of the rest of the night but Ash Isenbarger opened the second half with seven quick points for Lakeside. Mikayla Pirini then hit a three and it was a four-point ball game, but McKay responded with the next five points for Perry Lakes.

From there the Hawks maintained their edge to go on and win 89-72 to snap their two-game losing run and improve to a 5-7 record to move ahead of the now 4-7 Lightning.

The shooting of both teams was the major difference in the game with Perry Lakes going 48.5 per cent from the field while hitting 6/13 at 46.2 per cent from beyond the arc. Lakeside only managed to go at 38.9 per cent from the floor and 3/34 at 8.8 per cent from deep.

Megan McKay had another terrific night for Perry Lakes with 21 points and nine rebounds on 6/8 shooting with Nat Burton adding 15 points, five rebounds, four steals and three assists, and Maddie Dennis seven points and six boards.

Then the Perry Lakes back court was tremendous with Millie McCarthy finishing with 16 points and five assists, and Mia Satie 19 points, seven assists, four steals and three rebounds.

Lakeside might not have been able to buy a three-point basket with Ash Isenbarger going 1/12, Alecia Knowles 1/6, Mikayla Pirini 1/6 and Jae Flynn 0/6, but they did battle hard outside of that even with 26 turnovers thrown in.

Isenbarger still put up 21 points to go with nine rebounds, four blocks, three assists and two steals with Kyrah Daniels contributing 17 points, eight rebounds, five assists and two steals, Mikayla Pirini nine points and four assists, and Savannah Coleman nine points and six rebounds.

Lakeside coach Dave Daniels was proud of the fight from his team, but always knew it would be tough after giving up that early lead.

"If we don’t give up that run at the start we are probably in the game, but we just ran out of steam a little bit and that happens. Sometimes when you win you don't feel great about it and sometimes when you lose you can hold your head up high because you battled, and I'm just so proud of our ladies across the board," Daniels said.

"We did cut it back to four there in the fourth quarter but we just ran out of steam a little bit. They hit some shots and Millie came out and got going early to put us on the back foot, and to be honest we just shot really poorly. 

"I'm really proud of the girls for the way they competed and they have taken so many steps forward with so many young girls. We had five under-18s girls in our team and I'm just so proud of them. Ash has done an incredible job of leading and playing, and then our young girls have just stepped up. I couldn’t be more proud of them."

It is a tremendously young team that Daniels is coaching at the Lightning right now and one of the more exciting prospects is his 17-year-old daughter Kyrah.

She perhaps had the best game of her state league career on Friday night and he couldn’t be prouder of how she is progressing.

"I'm really proud of Kyrah. She is a great teammate, she does the little things, she's coachable and this was probably the best game of her short career," he said. 

"She makes people better around her and she is maturing all the time. D-League has been really good for her and she's getting some reps there and to be honest the older girls on this team like Ash and Mikayla, and Emma Clarke, have done a great job of encouraging her and all our younger players."

Lakeside now backs up to take on the Perth Redbacks at Belmont Oasis on Saturday night. Daniels is looking forward to welcoming back Emma Clarke for her first appearance since May 15 as they try and chase down that eighth position.

"We hope to get Emma back for the game against the Redbacks for some restricted minutes so she will make a significant difference on our team because she does a little bit of everything as well," Daniels said.

"This was a big game for that eighth spot unfortunately but absolutely we are still confident of getting it. We have shown we can beat anybody and we beat Rockingham here a couple of weeks ago so we can play with anybody in the league, and as we get back to full strength I think we are pretty dangerous."

NBL1 WEST WOMEN'S DIVISION 2021
ROUND 14

FRIDAY
South West Slammers 38 lost to Cockburn Cougars 94
Lakeside Lightning 72 lost to Perry Lakes Hawks 89
Kalamunda Eastern Suns 60 lost to East Perth Eagles 72

SATURDAY
Perth Redbacks v Lakeside Lightning – Belmont Oasis 5pm
Joondalup Wolves v Warwick Senators – HBF Arena 5pm
Mandurah Magic v Willetton Tigers – Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre 5pm