Lakeside Lightning coach Andy Stewart says his side must find a way to limit Perry Lakes star Anthony Lee's production to advance to the men's State Basketball League Grand Final.

Lee dominated game one of the best-of-three semi-finals series - which the Hawks won 78-76 - to hand Lakeside just its third loss of the season.

The import forward finished with 38 points and 14 rebounds and Stewart said it was imperative the Lightning didn't let him take control again when the series continues with game two on Friday and game three, if required, on Saturday at Lakeside Recreation Centre.

"Lee had an awesome game in game one," Stewart told SBL Radio on SportFM 91.3.

"He's just a competitor. I don't know that he scores in any one fashion, he'll hit a triple, he'll get a lay-up in transition, he'll get an offensive rebound, he'll get a drive to the basket, he'll make a cut and finish. He just comes at you from so many directions.

"Making sure he scores less is going to be a huge part of our objectives."

Lakeside was well below its free-scoring best in the first game of the series, with its 76 points the fewest it has scored in a game this season, and was unable to control the rebound count by as much as it normally does, finishing with a 48-45 advantage.

Stewart said the Lightning would have to improve to ensure the remainder of the series was played on their terms.

"I thought the Hawks played very well. They really took us out of our stuff that we wanted to run. They're just a bunch of competitors. They fight like crazy and they got us on the night," he said.

"Perry Lakes stifled a number of things that we wanted to get done and that forced us into some pretty poor decisions. They disrupted us and we didn't react very well to it sometimes.

"I think it's more than just transition. We were just down in a number of areas, partly because of us and partly because of them."

A major stumbling block for Lakeside in game one was an eye injury to Luke Payne, which saw him sit out the end of the second quarter and much of the third and caused its offense to struggle.

But Stewart said there was no doubt over the American star heading into the conclusion of the series.

"It's come up okay. It was pretty sore Sunday and Monday and he couldn't even wear his contact," he said.

"I wouldn't say he's 100% yet, but I expect him to be at 100% by Friday. It's healing pretty quickly."

The Lightning have won all 14 games at home this season, but Stewart said it would take more than that to turn the series around.

"If we think being on our home court is going to get us the win, we'll be buying tickets for the Grand Final," he said.

Article by Jacob Kagi
Photo by Grant Lauterbach

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