Match Report: Lightning bow out in Canberra

11/FEB/2007 – It will be a matter of third time lucky for the Canberra Capitals next weekend when they line up against the Sydney Uni Flames in the WNBL grand final and attempt to defend their title.

A 82-74 victory against the Adelaide Lightning yesterday secured the Capitals a grand final berth and their third meeting in as many week's the minor premiers.

But Capitals coach Carrie Graf knows it will take more than luck to beat the physical Flames, who have got the better of Canberra in their past two meetings.

It will take a bit of improvement and plenty of determination and Graf was confident her side would have both next Saturday when they hit the floor in Penrith.

"That's where we wanted to be - in the grand final," she said.

"We knew Adelaide was going to be tough, they fought us hard, I don't think that scoreline was indicative of the toughness of that game but we managed to hold on, we got a few free throws at the end and that helped the scoreline.

"But we really wanted another shot at Sydney, we were disappointed with the way we played that last game of the regular season, we were happy with the way we played in the semi, but didn't get the result we wanted and now we want another go at them.

"We want this championship and I think this team's as special as the Capitals have ever been and we're going for it."

Yesterday the Capitals took an early lead against Adelaide but surrendered it during the second quarter and had to fight back from being down by 11 points at one stage.

Canberra's talls did the damage early for the defending premiers and it was guards Tully Bevilaqua, Kellie Abrams and Jess Bibby who brought the game home and ended Adelaide's chance at collecting it's first title since 1998.

The Capitals bigs dominated early.

Abby Bishop got the scoring underway for the Capitals and was well supported at both ends of the court by Tracey Beatty and Donna Loffhagen, who scored a three-point play with her first possession.

They helped the Capitals to a six-point lead with four minutes gone on the clock but Adelaide began to find its rhythm and started closing the gap through Jessica Foley and Tracey Gahan.

It was no coincidence that after Beatty left the court with four minutes left in the quarter that the Capitals' scoring began to dry up and Tracy Gahan scored an equaliser, 11-all, making sure Adelaide was well an truly in the game.

The momentum stayed with Adelaide for the rest of the quarter and it went into the first break with a 21-15 lead.

Adelaide continued to pull away when the teams came back out on court and extended its lead to nine points before Jess Bibby started to find her range and inspired a Capitals comeback.

With just more than five minutes left on the clock, Adelaide notched up its sixth foul of the quarter and Canberra took advantage to get within one point of the visitors.

A three-point shot from captain Kellie Abrams, the Capitals first successful perimeter shot of the match, put the Capitals back in the lead but opposing captain Woosnam kept her side in the game and the teams went into the main break locked up at 37 apiece.

The Capitals picked up their defence in the second quarter and competed well on the boards, but the statistics still favoured Adelaide at half-time who had 27 rebounds compared to Canberra's 14.

Bishop lead all-scorers at the half way mark, but the one of the most impressive statistics was Beatty's four blocked shots. She finished the game with seven, one less than her career high.

Seconds before the half-time Dee Ranford hit the floor for Adelaide and medical staff took her off the court injured, but she returned to the bench with the side for the third quarter and later took her place back on the court.

Abrams put the Capitals back in front to get the third quarter started, but it was two three-point shots from Bibby which gave the Capitals an eight-point lead.

She finished the quarter with 12 points to her name on her way to a game high 23 points.

The Capitals' defence inside slowed the Lightning's shooting in the third and some hard work from Opals guard Tully Bevilaqua ensured Canberra's offence remained on song and it outscored Adelaide 22-13 to take a 59-50 lead into the last break.

Bevilaqua continued to control the ball game for the Capitals in the final period and they lead by 11 points with less than five minutes to go.

Realising their season was one the line, Adelaide started to fight back and with just more than one minute left had closed the gap to five points.

But mistakes in offence and a flurry of fouls from Adelaide killed any hopes they had of grasping victory from Canberra and it went away eight-point losers.

CAPITALS 82 (Jess Bibby 23, Kellie Abrams 16, Abby Bishop 15) LIGHTNING 74 (Tracy Gahan 20, Narelle Lindsay 14)
Crowd: 2750

By Julia Whyte for WNBL.com.au