Adelaide Lightning is the romantic favorite moving into the WNBL semi-finals against the Boomers

The Adelaide Lightning, playing with the backdrop of an uncertain future unless a financial saviour can be found, has become the Cindrella story of the women’s national basketball league finals series.

Adelaide Lightning captain Nicole Seekamp drives to the basket against the Melbourne Boomers at State Basketball Centre in Victoria. Picture: Lawrence Pinder

ADELAIDE Lightning - the Cinderella story of this year’s WNBL season - will storm into the finals believing anything is possible after a dramatic overtime win against Perth on the weekend.

The Lightning snatched third spot on the ladder with an 82-81 win over the Lynx in Perth, but more impressive was the fightback when they trailed by 21 points in the third quarter.

Adelaide, which is playing with the backdrop of an uncertain future after the team’s owner announced he would relinquish the licence next season unless a financial saviour could be found, is hitting form at the right time of the year.

It plays Melbourne Boomers in a best-of-three semi-final series starting in Melbourne on Sunday, while Canberra takes on Perth to decide the other grand finalist.

Last year Adelaide missed the finals by just one win.

The Lightning is 0-3 against Melbourne this season but has either been in front or at least right in the game in the last quarter of all three clashes.

Coach Chris Lucas said his team was confident going into the series.

“We look forward to playing next Sunday,” Lucas said.

“Melbourne have beaten us three times but that actually doesn’t bother us.”

Perth led Adelaide by 21 points in the third quarter before Adelaide stormed home to force the game into overtime on Saturday night.

It was the second time in 10 days the Lightning had won in overtime after they came from eight points down in the last quarter against Bendigo to level scores and eventually win by 11 on the road.

On Saturday night import Nia Coffey starred with 20 points, nine rebounds and a staggering seven blocks including a game-sealing rejection on Perth’s Alison Schwagmeyer in the final seconds of overtime.

Coffey is combining well with Adelaide’s Canadian import Kayla Alexander who finished with 17 points and nine rebounds, while Aimie Clydesdale, Nicole Seekamp and Lauren Nicholson all hit double figure scoring.

“We played with so much heart, we didn’t care how many points we were down,” Coffey said.

“We made our fixes at halftime and we stuck with them; I’m really proud of all of our team.”

Melbourne closed its regular season and secured second spot with an 89-78 win over Dandenong.

Maddie Garrick drained six three-pointers in her game-high 28 points to help the Boomers retain the Michele Timms Cup ahead of their semi-final series against the Lightning.

Adelaide last played Melbourne at home in Round 14 when they lost by 15 points.

But they will take heart having led by double figures in the third quarter and with Coffey and Alexander combining for 47 points.