Lightning

The Lightning, the first expansion team of the HBL (1998 season), have experienced both success and defeat in their history. In 1998, they reached the HBL Finals with a lineup of Bryce Caldwell and Jay Hartley, before being swept by the Warriors in an exciting and high-scoring series. The next year they struggled early with PureSugar being traded to the Lightning for Jay, but they did beat the almost-unbeatable SabreCats early before Bryce became unable to play and the team had to drop out of the league for the rest of the season. PureSugar moved on to the Titans and Bryce went on to become the team's mainstay, an ever-improving phenom who shocked the league in 2000. His teammate that year was Keith Grage, also known as KG, and they took the league by storm, reeling off six straight wins to start the season. Unfortunately, schedule conflicts forced Bryce out of the season, but he was replaced by Ryan "RLP" Pranschke. Ryan immediately emerged as an awesome rebounder and a guy who could score from anywhere at anytime, and he and KG became one of the more popular teams in the league. They also did their share of winning, and had a memorable rivalry with the Warriors where they were successful a couple of times, and played in the most thrilling game in HBL history against them in Week 8. They faced the SabreCats in the playoffs and were swept in two extremely close and somewhat controversial games. Since being swept by the Warriors in the '98 HBL Finals, the Lightning hasn't made it to the championship series...in 2005, the Lightning return with franchise player Ryan "RLP" Pranschke, along with rookie Tavian "Mr. T" Whitehead. Will they give the Lightning their first HBL Title?

TEAM HIGHLIGHTS

Lost the first two games in team history, but then ripped off a 4-0 record in 1998 Weeks 2 and 3 that stood for two years as the league record for a team winning streak...Finished 4-4, and won the one game playoff against the SabreCats to go to the HBL Finals and face the defending champion Warriors...Was the first team to defeat the SabreCats in the 1999 season, and handed them one of only three regular season defeats...Went on a new-record six-game winning streak to start the 2000 season, finishing at .500 with an 8-8 record...

ROSTER BY YEAR

1998 -- Bryce Caldwell, Jay Hartley

1999 -- Bryce Caldwell, Pure Sugar

2000 -- Bryce Caldwell, Keith Grage / Keith Grage, Ryan Pranschke

2005 -- Ryan Pranschke, Mr. T (subs Zach Brown, Jake Adams)

TEAM RECORD BY YEAR

1998 -- 4-4 Regular Season, 1-2 Playoffs/Finals, 5-6 Overall

1999 -- 1-6 Regular Season and Overall

2000 -- 8-8 Regular Season, 0-2 Playoffs/Finals, 8-10 Overall

2005 -- 3-1 Regular Season

Totals -- 16-19 Regular Season and 1-4 Playoffs/Finals, 17-23 Overall

TEAM STATS (after 2005 Week 2)

Year FG/Att. % 3P/Att. % FT/Att % PPG RPG APG SPG BPG TOPG F 1998 180/441 .408 23/90 .256 --- --- 47.9 22.5 9.9 5.2*2.8*4.3 44 1999 106/308 .344 40/143 .280 7/10 .700 51.8 24.6 9.2 3.4 0.8 2.4 29 2000 338/861 .393 109/346 .315 18/32 .563 57.4 34.4 12.3 3.6 0.7 6.2 43 2005 104/240 .433 27/63 .429 5/12 .417 60.0 34.0 10.3 3.5 2.3 4.8 -- Career 728/1850 .394 199/642 .310 30/54 .556 56.2 29.7 10.9 4.0 1.5 4.9 --

Key

PPG=Points Per Game RPG=Rebounds APG=Assists SPG=Steals
BPG=Blocks TOPG=Turnovers F=Fouls (not per game)
*=led league in category (team or individual)

HBL RECORDS OWNED OR SHARED BY THE LIGHTNING

FG Shooting, Game--(31/53, .584), vs. SabreCats, 2000 Week 2

Assists In A Game--(23), vs. Warriors, 2000 Week 2

Steals In A Game--(10), vs. SabreCats, 1998 Week 1

Winning Streak--(6), 2000 Weeks 1-3

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