Adelaide Lightning into the WNBL grand final after semi-final win over Melbourne

ONE of South Australian sport’s great fairytales continued to materialise tonight when the Adelaide Lightning progressed to the WNBL grand final with a straight-sets semi-final victory over Melbourne.

Kayla Alexander had 20 points and nine rebounds in Adelaide’s win over Melbourne. Photo: Naomi Jellicoe

ONE of South Australian sport’s great fairytales continued to materialise last night when the Adelaide Lightning progressed to the WNBL grand final with a straight-sets semi-final victory over Melbourne.

After winning game one in Melbourne on Sunday, the Lightning finished the job at home when they led from the first quarter and held their nerve in the last to win 100-92.

Watched by its biggest home crowd of the season of 1017, which included Sports Minister Corey Wingard, whose government has been asked to step in and save the team from extinction next year, the Lightning’s Cinderella story continued to unfold.

“This group is pretty special.”

- @AdelLightning coach Chris Lucas. pic.twitter.com/rMWYPrbfpK

— Reece Homfray (@reecehomfray) January 31, 2019

They will play either Canberra or Perth – who were playing off in game two of their semi-final series in Perth late last night – in the grand final series on February 9, 13 and 16.

Imports Nia Coffey (30 points and nine rebounds) and Kayla Alexander (20 points and nine rebounds) were enormous for Adelaide last night, as was lion-hearted co-captain Nicole Seekamp, who had a staggering 12 assists in the ultimate selfless performance.

But everyone contributed – Lauren Nicholson shot an irresistible 7/8 from the field while playing through the pain of a broken nose to finish with 23 points, Step Blicavs hit two big threes, Aimie Clydesdale drew and made two free throws just before three-quarter-time and Colleen Planetta converted when she had to.

Melbourne had its stars as well, with Lindsay Allen top-scoring with 29 points, Cayla George with 24 before fouling out early in the final quarter, and Jenna O’Hea’s three-point shot was on with three from long range.

Adelaide Lightning co-captain Nicole Seekamp on the drive. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

Things got interesting in the final quarter when Adelaide looked in control by leading by 12 points with two minutes left, before Madeleine Garrick hit a three and Allen also made a three-point play to reduce it to just six with 1:20 on the clock.

But the Lightning didn’t panic and with Melbourne in foul trouble, Blicavs went to the line and made two from two to make sure the win was not going to slip away.

From there it was just a matter of running the clock, which they did and marched into the grand final series while the vocal crowd was on its feet.

There were so many highlights for Adelaide, including Alexander, who made a half-court step only to miss the lay-up, but recover and sprint down the other end and made a huge block on George in the very next play.

Alexander set the tempo from the start when she grabbed a big defensive rebound and Coffey finished at the other end with a three-point play. There was no stopping Coffey after that as she drove to the ring with purpose and drained her step-back jump shot, while Nicholson could barely miss, including a perfect 2/2 from the three-point line, which is her trademark.

The Lightning was 0-3 against Melbourne in the regular season but came up big when they had to.