Lightning quick out the blocks

REIGNING champions Lightning sent an early message with a dominant 88-38 win over Razzle in the opening round of senior women’s basketball action on Friday night.

Lightning turned on the pace early, securing an opening-quarter lead of 24-7 and they never looked back.

Lauren Barnes (23 points), Dominque Carbone (21 points) and Claire Maree O’Bryan (14 points) dominated the scoring, while Sarah Carbone was a linchpin in defence.

Coach Jason Ivinson was impressed with the opening hitout from his players, the only issue being young gun April Rummery Lamb rolling her ankle in the first four minutes.

“It was a good hitout from all the girls but there is still a lot of work to do with this being our opener,” Ivinson told the Sunday Territorian.

“The first quarter really set the tone. Razzle is quite a big side and we have a good spread of numbers so there was an emphasis on playing up the court.

“We were aggressive early and that set the tone, while our defence was tight with most of their early scores coming from fouls.

“April did her ankle in the first four minutes. We strapped her up but ultimately it was pointless to risk injuring her by playing her any further, particularly when we were up.”

Lightning next face Essington, who suffered an 81-62 loss to Tracy Village on Friday night. The Cannons have plenty of firepower to call upon, including Josephine Guthridge who scored 22 points in their defeat, Kylie Duggan topscoring for Jets with 23 points.

“Essington are very much a guard-play side and will look for Guthridge to score plenty of points for them,” Ivinson said.