The Maitland Mustangs paid dearly for a delay in US import Kevin Warren's clearance with his absence contributing hugely to their opening round NBL1 East nine-point loss to the Illawarra Hawks on Saturday.
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The Mustangs were forced to run makeshift guards in the critical final quarter with Will Cranston-Lown suffering severe cramps and unable to take the floor after running himself into the ground.
With Warren unavailable and Jack Edwards on the injury list going into the game, the cupboard was bare when Cranston-Lown couldn't continue.
"it's pretty disappointing. We just needed someone to hit a button pretty much and Kev would have been right to play.
"The clearance needs to pass through FIBA in Zurich. And yeah, no one was there to process it.
"If he plays then I think we win. It affected us pretty severely."
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The Mustangs had the better of the game for the first three-quarters but just couldn't stay with Illawarra without Cranston-Lown on the court.
"We seemed to be on top of them for three quarters of the game to be honest and then we just had a kind of a run of calls that just didn't go away," Mustangs coach
"At the end of the third, Will started to get some bad cramping and he couldn't return to the floor in the fourth.
"We suffered pretty bad with him off the court just because we didn't have anyone in that backup kind of point guard position.
"The boys stepped up and did what they could, but again, we just had this kind of bad one minute run which which costs us pretty severely.
"We were up by nine but It was probably a nine point minute from the four minutes 15 mark to five minutes 15 when they got nine points on us.
"We just found it hard to get back."
Boyle said the Hawks were a quality opponent with plenty of NBL experience.
"They've got a pretty decent team. They've got to two guys who have had a career in the NBL and one one of those guys is still still playing this year," he said.
"And then two two younger guys who are also in the NBL Hawks side."
The Mustangs have a tough road trip this weekend with a double header in Canberra starting with their 2022 grand final conquerors the Canberra Gunners on Saturday night, followed by the Centre of Excellence on Sunday.
"I expect Saturday night to be a big one too, because I think they're doing their banner presentation. They will be nice and fired up," Boyle said.
While Warren's clearance should be resolved, the Mustangs will be without star big man James Hunter who starred for Maitland in the grand final in a battle with Glenn Morison.
"Jimmy is getting married this weekend so we won't have him which is a huge loss, but we are pretty confident of matching up well and getting the wins in both games," Boyle said.
Michael Hartshorn
Since starting in 1985 at the then Melbourne Herald, journalism has taken me around Australia from Victoria, to the Northern Territory, Cairns in Queensland and now Port Stephens. After all those years there is still something special about informing and connecting with readers.
Since starting in 1985 at the then Melbourne Herald, journalism has taken me around Australia from Victoria, to the Northern Territory, Cairns in Queensland and now Port Stephens. After all those years there is still something special about informing and connecting with readers.
