GOLDFIELDS Giants coach Stephen Charlton has declared the State Basketball League championship race wide open, claiming five teams are “legitimate” chances a month out from the play-offs.

The Giants’ bid for a hat-trick of titles took a hit on Saturday night, losing a thriller 104-102 on the road to the in-form Cockburn Cougars.

Giants captain Shamus Ballantyne scored the last two points of the game with 17 seconds remaining, but it was too little, too late.

Goldfields import Michael Haney’s reputation as the team’s Mr Consistent remained intact with a game-high 24 points and 10 rebounds, but he was fouled out in the fourth quarter on a night Cockburn was sent to the foul line 31 times.

Former Giant Bryce Burch hit 23 points for Cockburn, who have closed the gap on third-placed Goldfields.

“There is not much between the top four teams and you can throw Wanneroo into that mix as well, so the top five are all right there,” Charlton said.

“After a close game like that your emotions can get a little frayed, but we’ll have to use it as a motivator.

“It shows us we can’t just turn up and do what we want.

“We have to stick to what works and stay switched on for the whole game.

“We gave up a couple of big runs because we switched off, but that’s not to say Cockburn didn’t play well because they did.

“We’ve played one of the better teams in the competition and lost and there are a lot of positives, but obviously the negative is we couldn’t find a way to win the game.

“We’ve got to be able to maintain the pressure against the top teams because five legitimately have a chance where in previous seasons it was only left up to two.”

The Giants were on the back foot against Cockburn after American import Alonzo Hird gave up three fouls in the opening two minutes of the game.

It gave Cockburn all the early momentum as they took a 37-26 lead into quarter-time, but Goldfields came storming back to lead 59-57 at half-time.

“He gave away a couple of cheapies, which didn’t help,” Charlton said.

“It threw us out of whack a little early and we had to go to the bench, but we came howling back in the second quarter.”

Ballantyne was influential with 17 points and nine assists.

• The Giants won the second leg of their road double-header against Kalamunda 95-84 yesterday, improving their win-loss record to 16-5.

Import Alonzo Hird pulled down a season-high 22 rebounds, while Ryan Hulme and Shamus Ballantyne led the way offensively with 22 and 20 points respectively.

The Giants host the Wanneroo Wolves at Kalgoorlie’s Niels Hansen Basketball Stadium next Saturday.

Article by Jarrod Lucas (Kalgoorlie Miner)