Despite being hampered by some key injury issues, the Ringwood Hawks will look back at their 5 point loss to the Albury Wodonga Bandits as one that got away on Saturday night.

“It was not a moral victory, it was a loss and that’s the reality of it.” Hawks Coach Ken Harrington said via phone after the game.

“We were clearly not at our best but we had enough chances to win the game and in this League you have got to capitalize.”

No doubt the Hawks Coach would be referring to his team’s uncharacteristic 10 missed foul shots in the second half, including some in a stretch when the game was up for grabs. Last week the Hawks made 22 of their 23 Foul shots but went cold against the Bandits making just 22 of 34. The Hawks also missed a few point blank lay ups that proved costly.

The game did start positively for the visiting Hawks who grabbed an early lead and looked like they had control of the contest. The free flowing game was always going to be high scoring and at the half the Hawks had a 4 point lead after at one stage pushing it out to 10.

Bandits import guard Ken-Jah Bosley caught fire in the third quarter and fired up the massive sell out Albury crowd who became deafening. The noise was such that made it difficult for players to simply hear instructions from the Coaches at time outs. But with one minute left the Hawks were within 3 points but could get no closer despite having some good looks at three point opportunities.

Harrington said that the Hawks played with spirit but did not do a good enough job closing off Albury stars Bosley and Deba George.

“Those guys got too much space and we paid the price. He said.

“But credit to our guys who played through injury, it’s a shame we did not reward their effort with the win.”

The new NBL1 League has drawn massive crowds around Southern Australia so far and another big crowd will be at The Rings this Sunday. The Hawks will host one of the League’s hot favorites to win the Championship, the Kilsyth Cobras who are team stacked with current and former NBL players from Melbourne United.

“They are talented, experienced and deep with talent but if we can get a little rest to some guys this week we should be ready to go.” Harrington said.

RINGWOOD 100 (Gibson 21, Miller 21, Clarke 13, Latham 13, Sturt 11, Truman 8, Fennell 6, Snow 7) lost to ALBURY WODONGA BANDITS 105 (Bosley 37, George 24) at Lauren Jackson Stadium Albury. Crowd 700

 

Watch a replay of the men's game here and the women's game here.