Foul trouble proves difference for brave Stingrays

CORIO Bay fell agonisingly short of a Big V boilover, going down to league leader McKinnon by seven points.

The cellar-dwelling Stingrays outplayed the Cougars for large parts at home on Saturday night, but the 89-96 result left with them with nothing to show for their efforts.

Coach Paul Hutchison said his team had enough opportunities to win the game, but they just didn’t take them.

“(From the foul line), we only missed six but when it’s a six or seven-point game, they are the opportunities you need to make the most off,” Hutchison said.

“It’s one we should have got. I thought we were the better side, we shot it better from the two and three-point line.

“I felt we didn’t adapt to the referees enough.

“The foul shooting discrepancy was we shot 10, they shot 40.

“It’s very hard to win basketball games when you put a team on the line that many times.

“They scored low 90s and to get 25, 30 of them from the foul line from 40 attempts goes a long way to helping you win basketball games.”

Missing their tall timber in Griffin Errey and Chris Eichler, import Julius Brooks (25 points, 11 rebounds) was the Stingray’s only outlet with any sort of height.

However, youth product Cohen Blythe (19 points) and Joel McFall (17 points, 10 rebounds) were dangerous and kept the score ticking over.

“Joel is a very good shooter and probably doesn’t take enough shots. In saying that, he’s the guy I go to every week to lock down one of the studs from the other side,” Hutchison said.

“Dillon Stith, who is incredibly athletic, scored 35 points, but at the start of the game Joel done a fantastic job on him and he’s done that for us every week.”

The result takes Corio Bay to seven games without a win, but a string of close losses in recent weeks has Hutchison confident a win is “just around the corner”.

“They are battling and working incredibly hard,” he said.