Rays’ losing streak rolls on

CORIO Bay Stingrays slumped to 1-9 with their eighthstraight loss in Big V State Championship, falling nine points short against Knox Raiders yesterday at the State Basketball Centre.

The Stingrays trailed by just four points late, but the homeside held strong to score a 91-82 win — its seventh of the season.

Corio Bay was denied time in the paint, forced to have 39 attempts from the three-point line, while the Raiders registered 28 points to seven from turnovers.

“They played a zone on us all game, so naturally being a three-point shooting team, we went to that a bit more,” Stingrays captain Michael Rebula said.

“They’re a big team, big hands everywhere, so getting in the paint to Julius (Brooks) was challenging at times.

“They’re a good team, so it was always going to be a hard game.

“We went down by nine in the end but three minutes to go in the last quarter it was four points, so we were right in the game. Obviously we had to start fouling them and it blew out to nine in the end, so a disappointing result.”

Brooks worked hard to finish with 15 points and 14 rebounds, while Jackson Bentley recorded 20 points and six rebounds.

The Stingrays will look to revive its season against the 4-7 Hume City Broncos at home on Sunday.

“We’re really looking forward to that challenge, a home game for us,” Rebula said. “I know the boys are really focused and fired up to get one at home and hopefully that can start a run for us heading into the second half of the season.”