Lightning’s brightest shooter Lauren Nicholson plays through pain barrier to help Adelaide reach the WNBL grand final

ADELAIDE Lightning’s three-point weapon Lauren Nicholson has spoken about having her nose broken twice - once in the game and again in hospital - on the eve of the WNBL finals.

Lauren Nicholson had 33 points in two games in Adelaide’s semi-final win over Melbourne. Picture: Lawrence Pinder

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ADELAIDE Lightning’s three-point weapon Lauren Nicholson has spoken about having her nose broken twice - once in the game and again in hospital - on the eve of the WNBL finals.

As Nicholson prepares for game one of the grand final series against Canberra this weekend, she has revealed the extent of the injury which she carried through last week’s semi-final win over Melbourne.

The 25-year-old copped an elbow to the nose in the final regular season game against Perth and trained with a mask the next week, but courageously discarded it for both semi-final games against the Boomers and says she hasn’t even noticed it.

“I’m feeling really good now, I don’t even notice my nose anymore,” Nicholson said.

Melbourne Boomers Lindsay Allen is pressured by Adelaide Lightning’s Lauren Nicholson at the State Basketball Centre in Melbourne. Picture: Lawrence Pinder

“It was broken in two places, a guy in Perth put it straight back in then I went into hospital and had it re-broken and put back in again.

“It’s never happened to me before, I trained with a mask the week I broke it but then by game time I wasn’t going to wear it, and when I’m out there I didn’t even think about it.”

Nicholson had a combined 33 points in Adelaide’s two wins over Melbourne to help her team advance to its first WNBL grand final since 2007-08 when it won the championship.

“There’s a good feeling in the group, we had a pretty good training session yesterday and will go hard again today then ease off into the first final,” she said.

“We had a bit of a rough run to start the season and we’re finally hitting our form, all players are in form but we still have areas we can improve on.”

Nicholson has hit 78 three-pointers at a league-leading 49 per cent this season after working on her offensive game in the off-season.

“I’ve been known as a defensive player and rebounder all my life so being more of a scoring threat was something I wanted to improve on,” she said.

“Our biggest strength and why we are so hard to guard is our points can come from any individual on any night so (player) one through to five are capable of scoring the ball which is our biggest strength.”

Nicholson comes from Sydney and is expecting about 20 family members to make the trip to Canberra for game one of the grand final series on Saturday, and her mum and sister to come to Adelaide for game two next Wednesday.

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