West Spotlight | Morales, Rettstatt in spectacular showings

Featured image: Michael Farnell @sportsimageryau

It was a night of two of the most spectacular individual performances of the NBL1 West season with Esme Morales' 41 points getting Lakeside Lightning the 95-90 overtime win despite 34 points and 32 rebounds for the Perry Lakes Hawks from Bridgette Rettstatt.

Perry Lakes played host to Lakeside at Bendat Basketball Centre with Craig Mansfield making his first return to coach against the Hawks since going back to the Lightning in 2026 where he won a championship back in 2018.

It ended up being quite the spectacular night but it was Rettstatt for Perry Lakes and Morales for Lakeside who stole the show.

Rettstatt ended up with 34 points, 32 rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block on 13/19 shooting and 7/10 from the free-throw line with eight of boards offensive while she was a +5 in her 40 minutes despite her team losing.

Then dynamic guard Morales produced 41 points and six assists while playing all 45 minutes for Lakeside on 11/25 shooting from the field and 16/21 at the free-throw line.

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Lakeside took over the game in the second quarter and had a 12-point lead early in the second half before a 10-0 run from Perry Lakes set up a thrilling finish where two free throws from Morales levelled scores at the end of regulation to get the game to overtime.

Then it was all the Lightning in the extra five minutes for the five-point win to improve to 3-2 on the season while the Hawks are 1-2 under new coach Marcus Embury.

As well as the spectacular Morales performance for Lakeside, Regan Turnour-McCarty continues to embrace her bigger role than last year with Cockburn with 22 points, 13 rebounds and two steals with 5/12 shooting from downtown.

Kiriana Hawaikirangi also had 11 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals, Sarah Allen seven points, and Sam Roscoe six points, eight rebounds, five assists and two steals before fouling out.

On top of what Rettstatt did for Perry Lakes, Emma Clark finished with 11 points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals, Emilie Beggs 11 points before fouling out, Maddy Zugna 10 points and four rebounds, Ellie Newman eight points and three boards, and Mila Wawszkowicz eight points, three rebounds and two assists.

Both teams came into the match up trying to build some momentum into their season and it was Perry Lakes going into quarter-time with the 24-20 advantage with 12 points in the paint to four and five second chance points to zero.

Lakeside turned things around in the second period and it was all on the back of Esme Morales catching fire to help the Lightning outscore the Hawks 28 points to 14 for the quarter to go into half-time leading 48-38.

Morales already had 23 points to her name going into the break with Perry Lakes staying in touch largely thanks to the efforts of Bridgette Rettstatt who already had 15 points and 10 rebounds.

Rettstatt then dominated further in the third quarter with another 12 points and nine rebounds and the Hawks were back within six at three quarter-time even while going 4/29 shooting from behind the three-point arc.

That set the stage for a big finish and it was a big triple finally from Mila Wawszkowicz with just over a minute to play that tied scores up.

Emma Clark then hit two at the line to put Perry Lakes in front but it was only fitting that the game was up for grabs with the ball in the hands of Morales.

She was fouled attacking the basket and went to the line to make both with 0.8 of a second left which ended up sending the game into extra time.

And it was all Lakeside in overtime with Wawszkowicz and Emilie Beggs having fouled out, and Morales added eight of her team's 15 points in the extra five minutes as they secured the five-point victory.

Perry Lakes will now look to bounce back on Anzac Day on the road to the East Perth Eagles while the Lightning will be at home to the Eastern Suns on Friday night in another battle for coach Craig Mansfield against a former team.

NBL1 WEST 2026 SEASON | ROUND 4

PERRY LAKES HAWKS 90 (Rettstatt 34, Clark 11, Beggs 11)

LAKESIDE LIGHTNING 95 (Morales 41, Turnour-McCarty 22, Hawaikirangi 11)