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THE Lakeside Lightning and Mandurah Magic both secured quarter-final victories in the Women’s SBL on Saturday night setting up their semi-final battle while the Willetton Tigers downed the Stirling Senators to set up Game 3 on Sunday.

After the Perry Lakes Hawks advanced to the semi finals on Friday night by beating the Cockburn Cougars, the second and third-ranked teams at the end of the regular season also advanced on Saturday night.

The Lakeside Lightning won its Game 2 against the Joondalup City Wolves 73-56 at Joondalup Basketball Stadium while the Mandurah Magic defeated the Perth Redbacks 79-54 at Belmont Oasis.

The two teams will now meet in a tantalising semi-final contest.

The defending champion Willetton Tigers also kept its season alive beating the Stirling Senators 71-65 at Willetton Tigers.

They will now play Game 3 at Warwick Stadium on Sunday with the winner to play the Lady Hawks in the semi finals.

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The Magic had impressive won Game 1 against the Redbacks last week in Mandurah and backed that up again on Saturday night at Belmont Oasis proving too strong to beat Perth by 25 points.

That sees the Magic who finished the regular season advance straight to the semi finals while the season is over the Redbacks.

That Magic just had too much firepower and an ability to perform well over the full four quarters with Carly Boag a powerful presence inside finishing the night with 28 points and a monstrous 19 rebounds while shooting 13-of-24 from the field.

Nici Gilday also was a standout in the back court for Mandurah with 28 points and five rebounds.

Casey Mihovilovich contributed nine points and five assists while Bree Klasztorny pulled in nine rebounds and dished out four assists to go with three points.

Emilee Harmon top-scored for the Redbacks with 20 points and nine rebounds with Ajay Johnson adding 11 points and five boards, and Bianca Donovan nine points and three assists.

The Lightning finished the regular season in hot form and that continued last week at home in Game 1 of the quarter-final series with the Lady Wolfpack.

The Wolves had plenty of pride and had come off last year’s grand final appearance with a similar group this year, so they were always going to throw everything at Lakeside at home on Saturday night.

The Lightning did lead most of the way but the Wolves picked up some momentum inspired by Klara Wischer during the third quarter. They briefly did hit the front as well but the Lightning had the answers and dominated the last term with 23 points to seven to end up winning by 17 points.

That sees Lakeside advance to the semi finals while the season is over for the Lady Wolfpack who played their last ever game inside Joondalup Basketball Stadium in the Women’s SBL in the process.

The Lightning had a tough shooting night going 3-of-27 from long range but still managed to come away with the win led by 23 points and 11 rebounds from Ali Schwagmeyer.

Ash Grant added 17 points and 11 rebounds for Lakeside, Sam Roscoe 12 points and seven boards, Sydnee Fipps 12 points, 12 rebounds and four assists, and Jess Van Schie seven points.

Klara Wischer top-scored for the Lady Wolfpack with 15 points and seven rebounds with Nikita Martin contributing 11 points, five boards and four assists, Shani Amos eight points and five assists, and Ellyce Ironmonger eight points, six rebounds and three assists.

Lakeside coach Craig Mansfield is happy with his team’s performance to get past last year’s grand finalists as he turns his focus to tackling the Magic.

“There’s definitely room for improvement and there’s a lot of looking at game film for me now from that game because the Wolves and Mandurah have some similarities. So I’ll look for things we can do better and last time we went down to Mandurah they beat us pretty well so I’ll have a look at that,” Mansfield said.

“I’m really happy with this win and the thing with this game is that now you are through, you’d rather be tested in the first round rather than go to the second round where it’s a completely different level and speed to what you’ve been playing.

“So now I know we’re through, it was a really good first round series and they are a really good team obviously. We are happy to get through against a good team and now we’ll get ready for Mandurah.”

Meanwhile, the only Women’s quarter-final series that is going to Game 3 is between Willetton and Stirling after the Tigers claimed their Game 2 by six points at Willetton Basketball Stadium on Saturday.

The Tigers looked in trouble after losing Game 1 at Warwick Stadium last Saturday night with Kate Malpass injuring a shoulder. But Malpass got up to play on Saturday and inspired her team to the win to set up Sunday’s Game 3 back at Warwick Stadium.

Willetton set up the victory during the third quarter and led by as much as 10 points before going on to hold off Stirling and win by six.

Malpass was the star for the Tigers shaking off her sore shoulder to deliver 27 points, four rebounds, three assists and three blocked shots while shooting 10-of-14 from the field.

Stacey Barr added 15 points, six rebounds and six assists for Willetton with Zoe Harper contributing 12 points, six boards and three blocks, and Sam Norwood six points, eight rebounds and three assists.

Amber Land had a strong night for the Senators finishing with 20 points, 12 rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots.

Kisha Lee also had 16 points and six rebounds for the Senators, Jasmine Martin 16 points, six assists and four boards, and Taylor Roberts 10 points, four assists and four steals.

WOMEN’S QUARTER FINAL RESULTS – GAME 2s
Cockburn Cougars 61 lost to Perry Lakes Hawks 85 (Hawks win 2-0)

WOMEN’S QUARTER FINAL RESULTS – GAME 2s
SATURDAY
Willetton Tigers 71 defeated Stirling Senators 65 (Tied 1-1)
Joondalup City Wolves 56 lost to Lakeside Lightning 73 (Lightning win 2-0)
Perth Redbacks 54 lost to Mandurah Magic 79 (Magic win 2-0)

WOMEN’S QUARTER FINAL FIXTURES – GAME 3s
SUNDAY
Stirling Senators v Willetton Tigers – Warwick Stadium 12pm

Photo by Vikki Hile