Posted on 12 July, 2009

In what was billed as a battle between the League’s premier post players, David Gruber (21pts, 8rbds) again came out on top against the Cobras Joe Werner (14pts, 11rbds).

But it was the Frankston roll players who made the difference with Mike Runchy (14pts) and Grant Dennis (9pts, 5rbds, 4ass) making major contributions and Adam Nener (6pts) hiting his only two baskets of the game in the dying minutes to steal the show for the Blues.

It was just two weeks ago in the Cobras 81-78 loss to Frankston where Nener had hit the game winner and after playing 39 minutes without scoring found his range over the extended arm of Gerard Leonard again in this contest.

Leonard (19pts) continued his offensive resurgence but with Tim Lang (13pts, 6rbds, 4 blks) the only other player in double figures the Cobras made it hard for themselves.

Frankston began well in the opening term building an early eight point lead with Rob Kampman (18pts, 7rbds) and Gruber combining well at the offensive end.  Despite struggling to guard Lang the Blues were able to build a lead restricting the other Cobras. Matt Shanahan (9pts) hit a half court shot at the buzzer to cut the margin to three.

Kilsyth applied the straps in the second term restricting the Blues to just 17 points for the quarter but were only able to score 15 of their own as the margin returned to five at the long break.

Leonard had seven points in the opening three minutes of the third and after two free throws from Quincy Henderson (7pts, 10rbds) the Cobras held the lead for the first time in the match.

The Cobras relinquished their defensive pressure shortly after with Mitch Chapman (16pts) and Gruber taking advantage, closing the quarter out with six points a piece to extend the lead to nine at the final change.

Kilsyth again tried hard to overcome the deficit with Leonard again providing the spark but when Henderson missed a 3 with four minutes remaining the Blues rebounded hitting three consecutive bombs from behind the arc to push the margin back out to 12 and hand the Cobras their 12 loss of the season.

Despite the loss the signs remain positive for Kilsyth who shot 21/26 at 81% from the free throw line and again held their opponent under 90 points. Kilsyth have won 7/10 games when holding their opposition to 90 or less.

With four games remaining the Cobras will travel to Geelong next weekend for a meeting with the Supercats before returning home on Sunday 26 July to take on the AIS at 2.30pm.

Sunday 26 July 2009 will be the Cobras Family day so get down and support the teams – a range of activities are planned…more details to come!