21-04-2025
South West Slammers women's side suffer nine-point loss to Lakeside Lightning
South West Slammers women's side fell short in their mission to string together consecutive home wins at Eaton Recreation Centre on Thursday, losing to Lakeside Lightning by nine points.
In front of their own fans for the first time since the season opener, in which they snapped a streak of nearly six years without a home victory, the Slammers were competitive but finished on the wrong end of an 86-77 result.
The Slammers ultimately had no answer to Lakeside star Teige Morrell — the daughter of inaugural Slammers men's coach Marty Zeller, who now coaches the Lightning's women's side.
While scoring a team-high 23 points, Morrell exposed the Slammers' lack of size by hauling in 23 rebounds — only nine fewer than every one of her opponents combined — while also dishing out seven assists.
Despite the loss, American Cayla King had her best game in Slammers colours, drilling six of her nine three-point attempts on her way to 24 points.
King's fellow import Mykea Gray was still able to score 19 points despite playing less than 19 minutes due to foul trouble, which forced her to the bench for much of the first half.
On NBL1 West debut, the performance of Ella Edwards (10 points, two assists) was also a bright spot for the Slammers.
Despite being dominated on the interior, the Slammers were able to keep themselves in the game with some brilliant outside shooting, which saw them connect on 14 of their 32 three-point attempts.
But they had a much tougher time from inside the arc, where the same number of shots yielded only nine makes.
The Slammers were down by 13 points in the middle stages of the final term but Gray launched a personal 10-0 run capped off by a step-back three-pointer to cut the gap back to four points inside the final four minutes.
But the visitors were able to close out the contest by scoring nine of the game's final 12 points to secure their first win of the season.
Despite Gray heading for the bench for the remainder of the half after picking up a third foul from a charge in the closing stages of the first term, the hosts headed for half-time behind by only four points.
The Slammers' attempts at grabbing some momentum in the third term were consistently stymied by the Lightning, who allowed them to score on consecutive possessions only twice in the quarter.
