Home

Perth Lynx suffer heartbreaking WNBL loss to Adelaide Lightning as captain Katie Ebzery stands tall

Headshot of Craig O'Donoghue
Craig O'DonoghueThe West Australian
Captain Katie Ebzery dominated with 25 points in her team’s loss to Lightning.
Camera IconCaptain Katie Ebzery dominated with 25 points in her team’s loss to Lightning. Credit: Albert Perez/Getty Images

Perth Lynx coach Ryan Petrik has lamented his team’s inability to stop Adelaide from winning offensive rebounds after the Lightning came from behind to win 74-69 today in Mackay.

The Lynx led for most of the game but couldn’t put Adelaide away. The Lightning dragged in 24 offensive rebounds and scored 21 second-chance points to stay in the game, and then made Perth pay for mistakes in the final minute when scores were level.

Perth made three critical ball handling errors on separate trips down the floor and failed to score again.

But Petrik said he was more worried about the rebounding.

Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE

Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.

READ NOW

“The reality is that sometimes the ball just doesn’t go in. But we couldn’t get them off the glass,” he said.

“I thought our defence was elite, but we gave up 24 offensive boards. Their best offence was their offensive rebounding.

The Game AFL 2024

“We led for 27 minutes and there were 13 lead changes, so this game is about millimetres at times.”

Perth Lynx coach Ryan Petrik lamented his side’s inability to limit Lightning’s rebounding.
Camera IconPerth Lynx coach Ryan Petrik lamented his side’s inability to limit Lightning’s rebounding. Credit: Albert Perez/Getty Images

Captain Katie Ebzery was inspirational with 25 points in a stunning display. She shook off the criticism from her match against Townsville on Wednesday and led from the front.

Petrik was so concerned by the criticism of his players during commentary against the Fire that he warned his team not to listen to the audio.

“Katie is phenomenal. Why someone would want to get into her beats me,” Petrik said.

“With due respect to them, they are not here. They are not inside our walls.

“I heard them criticising our pick-and-roll coverage when the girls were playing to our exact game plan. We have to block that out.

“The commentators are in Melbourne. We’ve never met them. They’ve never been to a training session and they’re picking us apart.

“Our group is so young. If you start listening to commentators, you become the commentator.”

Darcee Garbin scored 15 points, Alex Sharp had nine rebounds, while Emma Clarke finished with nine points and seven rebounds.

But Perth couldn’t stop Steph Talbot. She scored 24 points and had 11 rebounds to drag the Lightning to victory.

Former Lynx forward Marena Whittle also had a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds while Alex Wilson was also damaging with 12 points, seven rebounds and five assists.

Perth barely have any time to recover from the loss with their next match against the unbeaten Melbourne Boomers tomorrow night.

Point-guard Alex Ciabattoni will be rested from that match to avoid her re-aggravating an ankle injury from the build up to the season, while the rest of the squad will be assessed tomorrow morning.

Get the latest news from thewest.com.au in your inbox.

Sign up for our emails