Stingrays’ pressure on
CORIO Bay’s nightmare Big V State Championship men’s season came to an end with a 60-point loss to McKinnon at home yesterday.
The Cougars came out searching for blood and had a 27-point lead on the board at the first break.
But the Stingrays thinned the bleeding after quarter time to go down 134-74 in a high-scoring encounter.
The loss came on the back of a 105-81 defeat to bottom-placed Whittlesea Pacers on Saturday.
“Joel McFall was 13 points, 15 rebounds and six assists which is terrific,” coach Tim O’Leary said of yesterday’s match.
“Jordan Latham again was solid. But everyone played well. It was great getting Chris Eichler and Griffin Errey back from overseas because they’re our two bigs.
“McKinnon came to punish us, I don’t know why. But they played their best five and they played a press on us probably 75 per cent of the game, and things didn’t look good at quarter time. We were 11-38.
“We ended up 74-134. It looks huge but at no stage did we give up again and we’re just looking forward to next season.”
O’Leary said his side had the building blocks to be competitive next season.
“There’s probably three guys in Youth League that should be playing in State Champ men full-time next year,” he said.
“That’s a conversation I’ll have to have with them, their parents and the club.
“If we retain Chris and Griffin, Michael Rebula and Joel McFall, there’s a foundation there that can be built on with two or three of the Youth League guys.”