Four-midable!
Loughborough Lightning win again
VITALITY SUPERLEAGUE
WASPS 44 LOUGHBOROUGH LIGHTNING 57 LIGHTNING fans were treated to a thrilling spectacle on Saturday when Loughborough clinched a 57-44 victory over Midlands rivals Wasps, to claim their fourth win in a row.
Having been tipped as the team to beat this season, Wasps, like Lightning, stepped onto court with three consecutive wins in the bag. Expectations were high with Wasps arguably boasting one of the strongest sides in the league, including a handful of English Internationals.
Lightning took an early lead and Wasps quickly responded but quick fire passing and support from defence soon saw Walker drop a ball into crowd favourite Peace Proscovia to push Lightning forward with a three point lead which was extended to six as the quarter ended.
Feeling refreshed Lightning looked ahead to the second quarter confidently but Wasps made changes to their line-up, continued to press and at half time had reduced Lightning’s lead to three points.
The first three matches in this season’s Superleague have seen Lightning struggle to maintain their advantage in the third quarter but in this encounter Lightning really stepped up their game and Wasps defenders failed to keep Proscovia and Walker out of the game with the tre- mendous two sailing the ball through the hoop on numerous occasions.
At the opposite end of the court, Rachel Dunn began to struggle under the threat of Trip and Oyesola, her shooting percentage dropping considerably, allowing Trip to send multiple rebounds back down the court and the quarter close with Lightning 40-32 ahead.
With just 15 minutes left to go, Wasps’ last ditch attempt to regain control of the game included five changes to their lineup. Lightning, for the first time this season, remained unchanged and what was expected was a refreshed Wasps team against a tiring Lightning, but Loughborough held firm.
Even with six minutes to go and a lead of 12, Lightning refused to step off the pedal and secured an impressive 57-44 win.
Head Coach Karen Atkinson was delighted by her team’s performance.
“I thought our full court defence was outstanding, but the main thing we worked on this week was our attacking elements and it’s really pleasing to see our players implementing what we’ve worked on in training and it work.”
Lightning now entertain Scottish side, Sirens on Saturday (March 18) looking to make it five wins in a row.
Limited tickets are still available - for more details visit www.loughboroughlightning.com