Game Preview: UC Caps v Adelaide Lightning
The UC Capitals will make their second trip to Adelaide this season on Friday, looking to make up for a missed opportunity three weeks ago against the Adelaide Lightning.
In that initial meeting, the Capitals had an opportunity to win at the buzzer, however, Charli Collier’s three-point attempt fell just a bit short. The Caps didn’t do themselves any favours in that game, shooting 35% from the field and only converting 38% of their free throws, while committing 25 turnovers.
Despite losing to Bendigo 95-67 in its last game of 2024, Adelaide has been playing solid basketball of late, winning 4 of their last 6 games. The team recently named Scott Ninnis, a highly regarded and experienced basketball lifer, as its head coach for the remainder of the season and has climbed to 5th on the ladder at 5-7, just one loss out of a top 4 spot.
For the Lightning, Issy Borlase (16ppg, 4.4rpg, 1.9apg) continues to establish herself as one of the premier young talents in Aussie hoops, as Steph Talbot (10.6ppg, 8.8rpg, 4.6apg) has worked herself back into form after missing the first few weeks of the season.
A key matchup in this game will be Charli Collier (12.3ppg, 8rpg) against Brianna Turner (9.8ppg, 11rpg, 2.4apg, 3.2bpg). In the first contest, Collier delivered her best game of the season dropping 27 points while pulling down 22 rebounds and dominating the Adelaide frontcourt. Collier has found her footing in the league after a slow start, and is coming off a 20point-10rebound performance against the Perth Lynx. The Caps need Collier to continue to be the dominant inside presence she has been in recent weeks to snap out of this six-game losing streak and build momentum for the remaining nine games of the season.
Caps star Jade Melbourne (14.1ppg, 5.3rpg, 6.7apg) will also be looking to bounce back against Adelaide. In that December meeting, Melbourne struggled through a 2-18 shooting day. Sitting at four points away from 1000 WNBL career points, Jade will no doubt look to be aggressive as she seeks to breakout of this mini-slump that she’s been on the past few games.
The Caps need to find a way to limit Borlase in this game. The young star went for 22-8-3 in the last meeting and hit a tough basket down the stretch to keep the Caps at bay. They did a great job on Talbot and Isabelle Bourne, and did reasonably well against Japreece Dean and Brianna Turner.
“It will be about our ability to stay focused and disciplined for 40 minutes. I thought we did a good job of following the gameplan against Perth, and if we can put together 40 minutes of good basketball where we’re sharing the ball, making our open shots, we should have a good shot against Adelaide,” said Coach Paul Goriss.
Overall the Caps need to find a way to keep generating good looks and knocking down those open shots. Having Katie Deeble and Indi Bowyer back should help. The Caps also need to knock down their free throws. Their recent form at the free throw line has dropped their season average to less than 70%, not exactly ideal for a team that is also only shooting 26% from three.
This is a crucial stretch coming for the Caps, with a game at home against Geelong a couple days later. While it’s a bit of a longshot, the playoffs are still mathematically possible, and they’ll be facing some of the teams that are directly ahead of them in the standings in the coming weeks. It’s as good a time as ever to make up ground and it starts Friday in Adelaide.
UC Caps at Adelaide Lightning, 7:30pm AEDT Friday 3 January, Adelaide 36ers Arena on 9Now.