Rockford has a women's ABA pro basketball team: Here are its top goals for the 1st season
Rockford has a new women's ABA semi-pro basketball team, and it has a familiar name: the Rockford Lightning.
And in trying to follow in the original Rockford Lightning's footsteps — except on the women's side of the sport — its main goals are simple.
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"We want to create a platform where women can continue their careers in basketball," the head coach of the first-year franchise, Tiffany Lambert-Kent, said.
And?
"And we want to win, too," said one of their starters, and a star on the Rockford-area basketball court for years, Stephanie Raymond, now Raymond-Young. "I mean, we don't play unless we think we can get that 'W.'"
They nearly started the whole thing off with a win on Saturday night during their season opener at Rockford University, but it slipped away. Raymond-Young, a past star for Rockford Lutheran, NIU and Chicago Sky of the WNBA, had eight points while Tierny Austin led the way with 32 points, but the Lightning lost 85-80 in overtime to the Midwest Sound.
Austin, the former Auburn star, had a driving left-handed finger roll twist out at the buzzer with the game tied at 77, and the Lightning went on to lose. Kalea Kruser added a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Here is everything you need to know about the new semi-pro women's basketball team in Rockford:
Who were the OG Lightning
The OG Rockford Lightning had a 20-year run from 1986 until 2006 in the men's Continental Basketball Association, which was the feeder program for the NBA. One of its biggest names was small forward Bruce Bowen, who played parts of two CBA seasons in Rockford between 1995 and 1997, and went on to win three NBA titles with the San Antonio Spurs and earn eight NBA All-Defensive Team nods.
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Ex-Chicago Bull Norm Van Lier served as the Lightning’s first head coach in 1986, and legend Ronnie Fields was one of the team's stars as well.
That Lightning squad played in the CBA championships four different times, but never won the league title.
Who are the new Lightning
Go here for the Rockford Lightning's roster and this season's schedule.
This is a very different team than that old Lightning, especially because it is made up of women playing against women. And because they're looking to win some championships.
"We've all just come together so quickly, and there's already chemistry. This has really come together," former East E-Rab and the current Lightning point guard Coriesha Bailey said. "Nobody wants to stop until we've won a championship."
Along with assistant coaches Ameer Watts and Quentin Thomas and strength and conditioning coach Damir Smith, Lambert-Kent is trying to build something that will last. Lambert-Kent is also the Jefferson High School varsity head coach, and she is hoping to have both jobs for a long stretch.
Here is the complete roster:
#5 Cierra Morris
#23 Briana Davis
#1 Coriesha Bailey
#11 Tierny Austin
#43 Mary Cofield-Bracius
#2 Erica Matthews
#3 Victoria Nguyen
#25 Crystal Lambert-Winston
#4 Alexcia Neal
#22 Niaja Taylor
#21 Kalea Kruser
#31 Mckaela Schmelzer
#10 Stephanie Raymond-Young
#24 Ashlee Boston
What to know about the new team
To purchse tickets to future games, go here.
They tipped off the season Saturday, and they pick back up on their eight-game schedule again this coming Saturday when they hit the road to take on the Cincinnati Reign. The playoffs begin in early September, and the Lightning expect to be a part of them.
"There is a ton of talent on this team, and we're here to play ball and take on whoever gets in our way," another of the team's standouts, Ashlee Boston said. "We want this team in the playoffs, and we want to win the whole thing. Right now."
There is also plenty of local talent on this new team, which boosted the Women's ABA to 18 teams in four divisions. Former Harlem star McKaela Schmelzer, who recently joined the Lightning after finishing her first year of playing professional soccer in Greece, scored the first points in franchise history with a 3-pointer. Rockford eventually jumped out to a 7-0 lead, and the Lightning pushed the lead to as high as 11 points twice in the opening loss.
The next home game for the Lightning is on July 22 and 23 when they host the Michigan Elite Stars on back-to-back days back at Rockford University's Seaver Center.
Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at jtaft@rrstar.com and follow him on Twitter at @JayTaft. Sign up for the Rockford High School newsletter at rrstar.com. Jay has covered a wide variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears to youth sports, since the turn of the century at the Register Star, and for over 30 years all together.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Here are the top goals for Rockford's new ABA women's basketball team
