THE Hamilton Hurricanes fell agonisingly short of a second win of the Country Basketball League (CBL) season against Colac on Sunday.

The game went to double overtime, with a call in the dying seconds of the round nine clash adding a hint of controversy to the game.

It was the home team which got the better start at HILAC, with Hamilton jumping out to an early 15-10 lead, thanks to Sam Brewer (six points) and Jakob Greaves (five points).

The Hurricanes continued to control the contest, extending the lead out to 35-27, as Wade Macdonald got hot and put up nine points to see the team go into half time ahead, 38-27.

The third quarter has historically been the Hurricanes’ worst, and Sunday’s clash was no different.

The team came out after half time and was flat, unable to sink the usual shots, as Colac grabbed the momentum and put together a 25-8 term to grab the lead and put the pressure back on the home side.

Hamilton rallied in the last quarter to level up the scores at 65-65 with 35 seconds to play, before controversy hit with a Josh Miller shot that looked to be a three-pointer from the crowd was called two points by the ref, forcing the game to overtime.

Both teams fought out the five-minute period, with scores still locked together at 76-76, before the Kookas worked the clock down and found space to drive to the ring, putting up what would be the winning basket to win, 88-86.

Hurricanes co-coach, Dean Le Roy said the lapse mid-game was the turning point of the contest.

“I think the third quarter let us down, we had momentum and had some good plays in the first half, then we came out after half time and we were asleep for the first 10 minutes, then we had to fight back,” he said.

“If we had have put together a really good third quarter, we would have got the result in the end.

“There was a massive shift this week in minutes, we gave our core seven more minutes, which also comes with responsibility.

“Playing lots of minutes, you are flustered, and you make those lapses, but out of three-quarter time they really switched it on.

“I think one of the key focuses at the end was composure, there was a little lapse when we tried to go bull at a gate, but at the end we took good shots but they just didn’t fall and theirs did.”

The locals were without captain, Erik Valka, and with Morgan Newns in foul trouble late in the game, the lack of bigs meant Greaves’ role changes for the round nine clash.

“Always hard when we lose our two bigs, we know we are a reasonably short team, we know we are going to get fouls but we just tell them to use them smartly,” Le Roy said.

“Wadey (Macdonald) has been coming off the bench … before the game he was shooting seven or eight straight and he deserved all the minutes he got.

“Jakob normally plays our three or four man role, but he was playing big and taking their best scorer all the time.

“By far their best two games this season.”

The late shot from Miller which looked to have initially won the game for the home side was a talking point in the crowd post-game, with Le Roy understanding of how tough the referee’s role is during games.

The use of technology is something that could be incorporated late in games if necessary and is a change Le Roy would support if introduced in future games.

“I have reffed myself before and I will never say the ref made the wrong call, they made a call and they stick by it,” he said.

“If we had have won the third quarter, it wouldn’t have come down to that.

“But moving forward, obviously you can’t have a full replay system like the NBL, but when it is crunch time, they do have someone there recording and they can go back and look for things like out of bounds, three-pointers, how long is left on the clock and things like that.

“I don’t expect them to change their call, but they could look at that before making their call.”

Miller finished the game with 22 points, while Brewer put up 18 points and Greaves shot 15 points to be the best of the home side.

The loss signals the Hurricanes’ last home game of the season, and will travel down to Warrnambool to take on the Seahawks on Saturday night.