Maley magic powers Perth to clean sweep over Adelaide

Sebastian Tan | January 10, 2026

Anneli Maley has helped the Perth Lynx keep their WNBL top-two ambitions alive, defeating a Dallas Loughridge-inspired Adelaide Lightning 80-65.

The 27-year-old produced a razzle-dazzle showing at the Perth High Performance Centre on Saturday, registering her seventh double-double in eight games, making 25 points, 12 rebounds and two steals.

Victory keeps their top-two hopes alive for the Lynx (13-4), who are equal with the second-placed Townsville Fire, but have a lower percentage (120 to 111).

A top-two finish guarantees two home semi-finals in a best-of-three series.

Opal Ally Wilson (10 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists) and South Australian Alex Ciabattoni (16 points, seven assists) were typically inspirational for the Lynx.

The result means Perth completed a clean sweep over Adelaide, having beaten their opponents three other times this season, including a 93-75 victory on January 2.  

“This has been the game we’ve lost already three times this season, in terms of winning big against an opponent and then playing them within two weeks and really struggling,” coach Ryan Petrik said. 

“Earlier in the season we beat Geelong pretty handily and then we went back to Geelong and got beaten badly. 

“Against Canberra, we held them to 49 and (last Sunday) … we lost again. 

“It was not our prettiest display offensively … it’s really pleasing that on a night where our offence isn’t really going, we hold their team to below 40 per cent from the field.”

A win for the Lightning (4-13) would have helped them snap a five-game losing streak and move them within two wins of the top four, but they were unable to keep up with Perth’s persistent scoring.

Loughridge enhanced her claims to being the league’s breakout player of the season, making 25 points, four rebounds and two steals, while Opal Steph Talbot was busy posting 14 points and six rebounds.

“We need to believe we can win. We can’t worry about mistakes, a turnover, and just make sure that we’re staying together,” coach Aja Parham-Ammar said. 

“Although they got a lot of free throws, we did what we wanted to on the defensive end. We’ll just keep building on the offence.”

Perth started with a spring in their step, an early 8-2 run steering them to an eight-point lead at quarter-time.

Adelaide cut the deficit to just one midway through the second quarter as Talbot and Loughridge found a new gear, but Maley sank eight points to help Perth to a 38-30 advantage at halftime.

The Lynx went on a 10-0 third-quarter run to open up a 14-point gap at the final break, which the Lightning couldn’t peg back.