Payne-ful victory for Lightning against Hawks in game two

Lakeside Lightning have held off a fierce Total Connections Perry Lakes Hawks comeback in game two to force their men's State Basketball League semi-finals series to a deciding third game.

The Lightning survived a late scare to level the best-of-three series at 1-1 with a 92-88 win on Friday at Lakeside Recreation Centre to set up the deciding game at the same venue on Saturday, which will determine who will face Wanneroo in the Grand Final.

But victory may have come at a huge cost for Lakeside, which lost star import Luke Payne to an apparent leg injury early in the third quarter.

Payne, who finished with 13 points, was forced off after a seemingly innocuous incident and didn't return to the court. He briefly returned to the bench in a tracksuit later on but walked with a significant limp and went to hospital at the end of the match, which suggests his availability for game three is in serious doubt.

Despite Payne's injury, the Lightning were still able to build a 19-point lead late in the third quarter and appeared set to hold on for a comfortable victory when their advantage was still 16 with five minutes left in the match.

But Anthony Lee, who produced a stunning second half to finish with 33 points, led a 14-2 run for the Hawks to cut the margin to four with nearly two minutes remaining.

Lee missed a three-point attempt to bring Perry Lakes within one point with a minute left and a Jarrad Prue basket on the next possession ensured Lakeside maintained its perfect home record.

American forward Ben Beran top-scored for the Lightning with 34 points, but it was their 57-42 dominance of the boards, led by veteran centre Prue (29 rebounds) which was the biggest factor.

Lee had just five points for the Hawks at half-time but almost single-handedly led his side's comeback with a dominant second half, while Ben Purser had 19 points despite being held scoreless in the second half.

Although the Lightning were able to open up a big gap after half-time, they struggled at times in the first half.

Lakeside's ability to score the ball was a problem late in game one and it was again early in the second match, as it shot just three for 24 from the field in the first quarter, which saw it trail by eight at the first break.

But the Lightning, who were playing in front of a home crowd in excess of 500 people, started the second quarter on a 12-0 run to take the lead.

Perry Lakes briefly hit the front again late in the second, but Lakeside fought back to take a four-point advantage to half-time and never relinquished the lead after that, despite the late scare.

Article by Jacob Kagi at Lakeside Recreation Centre
Photo by Grant Lauterbach

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