Newcastle Falcons have slipped to third on the NBL1 East Conference men's ladder after stumbling to a 72-59 loss to southern rivals Central Coast Crusaders at Terrigal on Saturday.
It was Newcastle's second straight defeat, and third from their past four games, leaving them with an 11-6 win-loss record behind Canberra Gunners (13-5) and Maitland Mustangs (11-6). Maitland are second on tie-breaker rules because they have beaten Newcastle twice this season.
Crusaders took control of a see-sawing contest with a 10-0 run during the fourth quarter, to push a 57-55 advantage to a match-winning 67-57 lead with less than 90 seconds remaining.
Newcastle went five minutes without scoring and that proved the difference, after little had separated the two teams during the first three quarters.
Central Coast began well to build a 23-15 lead at quarter-time, Newcastle responded in the second period to reduce the deficit to 33-32 by half-time, then an uncontested Oliver Robilliard lay-up at the buzzer allowed Crusaders to take a 48-47 lead into the final term.
Two dunks by JaShaun Smith and a three-point play by Myles Cherry helped the Falcons trade scores in the early minutes but by mid-quarter, they could not buy a basket and the game slipped away.
Newcastle are in the middle of a stretch of five straight away games, and face a tough trip to Sydney next weekend to play sixth-placed Inner West Bulls (8-9) and fifth-placed Norths Bears (10-7).
"We knew what to expect and that's exactly what we got," Falcons coach Peter Astley said.
"They're a tough, experienced group, and they executed well when it mattered, and we didn't.
"We're in the middle of a tough stretch of road games at the moment, we're not playing as well as we want to be, and we have to work hard to work our way through this."
Cherry (14 points, 13 rebounds, three assists), Ryan Beisty (11 points, nine rebounds, three assists, three steals) and Smith (10 points, two rebounds) were the only three Newcastle players to score in double figures.
Callum Jenkins (22 points), James Trustum (14), Robilliard (13) and Luke Cassidy (11) led a balanced Crusaders scoresheet.
In the women's game, Newcastle rolled to their sixth win from their past seven games with a comfortable 84-53 victory to remain in fourth position with an 11-5 record.
The Falcons cannot miss the top six but, with four games left in the regular season, are targeting a top-four finish as they will host a first-round play-off game if they place third or fourth. If they can sneak into second spot, they will be guaranteed a ticket to finals weekend on August 27-28.
Three of Newcastle's last four games are against second-placed Norths, who they play twice, and third-placed Sutherland, so they could not afford to drop the game against ninth-placed Crusaders.
"We were always confident because we've been playing well, but it was important that we got this win to stay in that top four," Falcons coach Chloe Mullaney said.
The teams were tied at 18-all after the first term, but the Falcons took control in the second period to establish a 42-31 lead by half-time, then went on with the job in the final two quarters.
Chyra Evans led all scorers with 26 points, and added 11 rebounds and two blocked shots, and Nicole Munger (14 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists, five steals, one block) produced another complete performance after her triple-double against Canberra the previous week.
Emily Foy (17 points) and Kate Kingham (12) also scored in double figures, and centre Amelia Raidaveta came off the bench to post nine points, eight rebounds and two steals in her final appearance before heading to the United States to begin her college career.
