Coach blames broken clock for loss

ILLAWARRA coach Rob Beveridge believes a 10-minute game delay caused by a shot clock malfunction cost his team dearly in their 102-96 NBL home loss to Adelaide.

The Hawks led at every change and were up by nine in the fourth quarter before being overrun by the 36ers at WIN Entertainment Centre on Thursday night. Adelaide’s 10th win earned them a share of fourth spot with nine games remaining, while Illawarra (8-11) are walking a tightrope to stay in finals contention.

Beveridge is fuming about a shot clock problem that arose early in the second quarter and wasn’t resolved until halftime.

Play was held up for 10 minutes before it was decided the game would continue without a mandatory 24-second shot clock.

There were no further shot clock issues in the second half but Beveridge isn’t happy about the unusual situation.

“It’s pretty unprofessional,” the Illawarra coach said.

“It changed how we were doing things, the flow. It totally changed the dynamics of the whole game.

“You sit around waiting because of a technical issue and it threw us out. It was frustrating.”

Hawks import Brian Conklin was surprised no back-up plan existed for such situations.

“It’s frustrating. It’s a professional league,” he said.

“I’ve played in worse leagues where we were able to figure it out. There has to be a stopwatch or something. We have to figure it out.”