Adelaide Lightning

The Adelaide Lightning is an Australian professional women's basketball team competing in the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL).^[1] The club is based in the city of Adelaide, South Australia. The club was formed in 1993 and they play in the 8,000-seat Titanium Security Arena.

Adelaide Lightning
Leagues	WNBL
Founded	1993
History	Adelaide Lightning 1993–2005; 2006–present Adelaide Fellas 2005–2006
Arena	Titanium Security Arena Findon, South Australia Australia
Capacity	7,800
Team colors	Dark blue   Red   Yellow
General manager	Steve Wren
Head coach	Scott Ninnis
Championships	5 (1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2008)
Website	Official website

History

The Adelaide Lightning were formed in 1993 and started playing out of the Clipsal Powerhouse. Since the early 2000s the team has tended to alternate between their current home at the Adelaide Arena (formerly the Powerhouse) and the Wayville Sports Centre located within the Adelaide Showgrounds.

The Lightning have won the WNBL Championship five times (1994, 1995, 1996, 1998 and 2008). The club's captain during its glory years of the 1990s was three time Olympian, twice WNBL MVP and club games record holder (304) Rachael Sporn. Sporn is also the only Lightning player to have her number (14) retired by the club. Other Opals to have played with the Lightning include Jenny Whittle, Carla Boyd, Jo Hill, Kristi Harrower, Erin Phillips, Jae Kingi-Cross, Marina Moffa, Tracey Beatty and Suzy Batkovic-Brown.

As of the 2013–14 WNBL season, the Lightning and Adelaide's men's NBL team the Adelaide 36ers entered into a merger which saw the two teams share the same management team. This also saw the Lightning move their home games exclusively played at the Adelaide Arena where they would play a number of double headers with the 36ers, ensuring larger home attendances for the Lightning and raising the profile of the team. The return to the 8,000 seat Adelaide Arena gives the Lightning easily the largest current venue in the WNBL (the Arena seats some 2,800 more than the AIS Arena in Canberra, while most other WNBL venues can seat around 2,000 – 2,500).

On 5 March 2019, Mr Bruce Spangler, Chairman of Arena Stadium Management announced that he and another business person had negotiated with the WNBL to take over the licence from Adelaide Basketball who were going to hand in the WNBL Club licence at the end of the 2018–19 season. A new sustainable model has now been released for the public to be involved in.

In September 2023, the Lightning and Rachael Sporn agreed to un-retired her number 14 jersey, which was originally retired in 2007.^[2]

Season-by-season records

Season	Standings	Regular season			Finals	Head coach
		W	L	PCT
Adelaide Lightning
1993	2nd	16	2	88.8	Lost Semi Final (Sydney, 59–64) Lost Preliminary Final (Perth, 66–68)	Jan Stirling
1994	1st	16	2	88.8	Won Semi Final (Melbourne, 84–82) Won Grand Final (Melbourne, 84–77)	Jan Stirling
1995	1st	16	2	88.8	Won Semi Final (Sydney, 73–63) Won Grand Final (Melbourne, 50–43)	Jan Stirling
1996	2nd	16	2	88.8	Lost Semi Final (Sydney, 54–57) Won Preliminary Final (Perth, 87–55) Won Grand Final (Sydney, 80–65)	Jan Stirling
1997	2nd	14	4	77.7	Won Semi Final (Sydney, 58–54) Lost Grand Final (Sydney, 56–61)	Jan Stirling
1998	2st	9	3	75.0	Lost Semi Final (Sydney, 42–61) Won Preliminary Final (AIS, 81–54) Won Grand Final (Sydney, 67–57)	Jan Stirling
1998–99	3rd	12	9	57.1	Won Semi Final (Melbourne, 63–54) Lost Preliminary Final (Perth, 46–67)	Jan Stirling
1999–00	2nd	13	8	61.9	Won Semi Final (Canberra, 91–84) Lost Grand Final (Canberra, 50–67)	Jan Stirling
2000–01	3rd	15	6	71.4	Lost Semi Final (Dandenong, 71–83)	Jan Stirling
2001–02	1st	17	4	80.9	Lost Semi Final (Canberra, 62–66) Lost Preliminary Final (Sydney, 64–66)	Jan Stirling
2002–03	4th	12	9	57.1	Lost Semi Final (Sydney, 70–72)	Jan Stirling
2003–04	3rd	13	8	61.9	Won Semi Final (Canberra, 72–63) Lost Preliminary Final (Sydney, 61–65)	Jan Stirling
2004–05	4th	13	8	61.9	Lost Semi Final (Sydney, 93–94)	Chris Lucas
Adelaide Fellas
2005–06	2nd	14	7	66.6	Lost Semi Final (Dandenong, 70–75) Lost Preliminary Final (Canberra, 81–83)	Chris Lucas
Adelaide Lightning
2006–07	3rd	15	6	71.4	Won Semi Final (Dandenong, 66–61) Lost Preliminary Final (Canberra, 74–82)	Chris Lucas
2007–08	1st	21	3	87.5	Lost Semi Final (Sydney, 71–90) Won Preliminary Final (Dandenong, 74–64) Won Grand Final (Sydney, 92–82)	Vicki Valk
2008–09	4th	15	7	68.1	Won Elimination Final (Bendigo, 81–73) Lost Semi Final (Townsville, 78–91)	Vicki Valk
2009–10	6th	13	9	59.0	Did not qualify	Vicki Valk
2010–11	9th	3	19	13.6	Did not qualify	Stephen Breheny
2011–12	1st	18	4	81.8	Lost Semi Final (Bulleen, 70–73) Lost Preliminary Final (Dandenong, 78–91)	Peter Buckle
2012–13	3rd	18	6	75.0	Lost Semi Final (Townsville, 53–60)	Peter Buckle
2013–14	5th	12	12	50.0	Did not qualify	Peter Buckle Richard Dickel
2014–15	7th	7	15	31.8	Did not qualify	Jeremi Moule
2015–16	7th	10	14	41.6	Did not qualify	Tracy York
2016–17	8th	3	21	12.5	Did not qualify	Chris Lucas
2017–18	5th	11	10	52.3	Did not qualify	Chris Lucas
2018–19	3rd	13	8	61.9	Won Semi Final (Melbourne, 2–0) Lost Grand Final (Canberra, 1–2)	Chris Lucas
2019–20	4th	12	9	57.1	Lost Semi Final (Southside, 0–2)	Chris Lucas
2020	6th	5	8	38.5	Did not qualify	Chris Lucas
2021–22	4th	10	7	58.8	Lost Semi Final (Melbourne Boomers, 0–2)	Chris Lucas
2022–23	7th	5	16	23.8	Did not qualify	Natalie Hurst
2023–24	7th	8	13	38.0	Did not qualify	Natalie Hurst
Regular season		376	229	62.2	5 Minor Premierships
Finals		19	25	43.2	5 WNBL Championships

Source: Adelaide Lightning Archived 22 August 2019 at the Wayback Machine

Statistics

Adelaide Lightning statistics
2010s
Season	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG
2010–11	A. Marino (15.2)	D. Walker (6.5)	A. Marino (4.2)	D. Walker (1.9)	D. Walker (1.9)
2011–12	S. Batkovic (24.6)	S. Batkovic (10.2)	A. Marino (3.5)	S. Batkovic (2.6)	S. Batkovic (1.6)
2012–13	S. Batkovic (21.0)	S. Batkovic (9.7)	J. Screen (4.3)	S. Batkovic (1.5)	S. Batkovic (2.6)
2013–14	L. Hodges (17.8)	L. Hodges (7.7)	A. Marino (3.4)	J. Foley (1.0)	C. Shegog (1.1)
2014–15	L. Hodges (16.5)	J. Screen (6.9)	J. Screen (3.7)	J. Foley (1.3)	K. Scheer (0.7)
2015–16	L. Mitchell (16.8)	M. Ruef (9.9)	L. Mitchell (4.5)	L. Mitchell (2.1)	K. Standish (0.8)
2016–17	L. Hodges (17.5)	L. Hodges (7.1)	S. Logic (5.4)	S. Logic (1.8)	C. Planeta (1.5)
2017–18	A. Bishop (15.7)	A. Bishop (9.2)	N. Seekamp (5.0)	N. Novosel (2.4)	R. Hamblin (1.0)
2018–19	N. Coffey (17.5)	K. Alexander (8.9)	N. Seekamp (6.0)	N. Seekamp (2.2)	N. Coffey (1.3)

Players

Current roster

2024–25 Adelaide Lightning roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Nat. Name Ht. G 3 Basham, Brooke 1.72 m (5 ft 8 in) F 5 Pineau, Georgia 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) G/F 7 Talbot, Stephanie (C) 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) G 9 Simons, Jess 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) F 10 Freer, Maddy 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) G 14 Borlase, Isobel 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) F 18 Gordon, Ella 1.84 m (6 ft 0 in) F 19 Andrews, Haylee 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) F 21 Turner, Brianna (I) 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) F 22 Graham, Grace 1.84 m (6 ft 0 in) G 24 Dean, Japreece (I) 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in) F 34 Bourne, Isabelle 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) G/F 41 Brazel, Tayla 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)	Head coach Scott Ninnis Assistant coach(es) Matt Clarke Georgia Crouch Legend (C) Team captain (DP) Development player (I) Import player Injured Roster Updated: 17 December 2024

Honour roll

WNBL Championships:	5 (1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2007/08)
WNBL Finals Appearances:	19 (1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1998/99, 1999/2000, 2000/01, 2001/02, 2002/03, 2003/04, 2004/05, 2005/06, 2006/07, 2007/08, 2008/09, 2011/12, 2012/13)
WNBL Grand Final appearances:	7 (1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999/2000, 2007/08)
WNBL Most Valuable Players:	Rachael Sporn (1996, 1997), Suzy Batkovic (2012, 2013)
WNBL Grand Final MVPs:	Rachael Sporn (1994, 1995), Michelle Brogan (1996), Jo Hill (1998), Renae Camino (2008)
WNBL Coach of the Year:	Jan Stirling (1993), Peter Buckle (2012)
WNBL Rookie of the Year:	Kamala Lamshed (2002)

References

1. "WNBL Media Guide 2016–17" (PDF). wnbl.com.au. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 November 2016. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
2. Minh (11 September 2023). "RACHAEL SPORN'S NO. 14 JERSEY RETURNS WITH ISOBEL BORLASE". wnbl.basketball/adelaide. Archived from the original on 8 January 2024.

External links

• Official team website