The Rockingham Flames Men and Women played host to the Lakeside Lightning on Saturday evening in round fifteen of the State Basketball League.

The Lady Flames welcomed captain Kaye Tucker back into the line-up after she missed the teams’ previous game at Bunbury and were looking for redemption against the sixth placed Lightning who defeated them in round 10.

The first quarter was an even affair but the Lightning took the early advantage shooting 44% to the Flames 29% to take an 18-14 lead at the first change.

In the second term the visitors took the upper hand with their American Natalie Young pouring in 15 points for the half while the Lady Flames struggled to find consistent scoring avenues and faced a 27-40 deficit at the main break.

To start the third Sherelle Johnson got to the foul line which showed positive signs for the Lady Flames but Young answered with another three point basket at the other end and when Casey Haggar went down with an ankle injury and had to be assisted from the court the lead had extended to 20pts with 6.12 remaining on the clock.

In the final six minutes of the third both teams went basket for basket as the scores were 38-59 at the last change.

In the last the Lady Flames saw the lead extend to 30pts and with 4.25 remaining cleared the bench to give some of the young squad members some valuable playing time with O’Dea, Petersen and the Wheki sisters all registering on the scoresheet.

At full time the Lady Flames went down 48-76 with the Lightning able to claim the head to head nearing the playoffs.

Kaye Tucker led the way with 17pts & 6rebs while Sherelle Johnson was the only other players to register double figures with 14pts & 6rebs.

Now to the Men, who brought Trey Clarkson back into the fold after he missed the Kalgoorlie road trip with an ankle injury and the team looked to push closer to locking in a finals berth.

The Lightning opened with a Jason Faulknor dunk within four seconds and from that point on things went from bad to worse for the Flames. With four minutes elapsed the lead was 11 and by quarter time import Luke Payne had shot the visitors to a commanding 34-10 lead with 18 points of his own for the term.

In the second the Flames offered little resistance as the Lightning extended the lead to 41 points with 2.33 remaining before half time and a one sided rebound count of 13-34 saw countless second chance scoring opportunities present to the home crowd’s disappointment.

At the main break the Flames went into the locker room with a 28-66 deficit and were starring down the barrel of a massive defeat.

As the third quarter began the Flames looked to chip away on the scoreboard but found themselves trading baskets as the lead remained in excess of 36pts and when the buzzer sounded they trailed by 43pts as the stormy night outside wasn’t any nicer to the fans who flocked to the game.

With the game well and truly over and the Flames down by 43pts with 8.14 remaining on the clock the crowd erupted when Chudier Pal entered the game and scored his first points at home via the charity stripe. The one positive was the Flames were able to outscore the visitors in the last 15-10 but with the damage inflicted early in the piece the Lightning ran out convincing winners 102-64.

The Flames were led by American Joey Harrell who was the only player to clock double figures with 17pts & 6rebs while Brendan Della had 9, Gerovich 8 and Godfrey 8 were the other contributors.

This weekend will see both teams facing double headers as they host Cockburn on Friday night with 6:30pm and 8:30pm starts while Saturday they make the trip to face Stirling.

Article by Ryan Rogers (RBRA)
Photo by Marg Prior