A POOR second quarter cost the Bathurst Goldminers their third consecutive win of the men’s State League Basketball season, going down 90-83 to hosts the Lithgow Lazers on Saturday night.

After wins over Dubbo then Illawarra, the Goldminers were confident of being able to topple the Lazers at the Lithgow Basketball Stadium and continue their impressive return to the competition after a year’s absence.

But in the second quarter the hosts managed to open up an 11-point lead. It was to prove decisive.

Even outscoring the Lazers 34-16 in the final quarter was not good enough for the Goldminers to save the match.

“That second quarter was what did it to us. What killed us was our turnovers and boxing out on the defensive end. They got themselves back into the game with a lot of second chance points,” Goldminers coach Matt Chapman said.

“That sort of thing continued throughout the entire game up until the fourth quarter. We went out there with nothing to lose at that point and played a lot better basketball as a team.”

Lithgow’s import player Issac Mack not only top scored in the match with 38, but found 16 of those points from the free throw line.

His efforts highlighted a major difference between both sides.

 The rivals produced almost equal shooting statistics from the field, but the Lazers were superior from the stripe.

After a close opening quarter where Lithgow held a slim 23-22 advantage, the Goldminers were not able to maintain their defensive intensity.

By half-time the Lazers were up 41-33 and from there they went on with the job, handing Bathurst their second loss of the season.

Still, there were some positives for Chapman. Goldminers captain Kieran Osborn scored 28 points against his former club, while one of the younger members of the squad impressed as well.

“I’ve got huge praise for Will Cranston-Lown, who came in for those last five minutes. He brought a lot of control back into our game,” Chapman said.

“He might not feel like he made that big a contribution, but I could see it.”

Goldminers will play host this Saturday to the Queanbeyan Yowies without the assistance of Osborn. It means Chapman will be looking to others to lead by example.

“I think we lose a lot of our structure without Kieran there. People like Will Cranston-Lown and Kyle Simpson will really have to step up,” he said.

“With Queanbeyan it will be hard to tell how we’re going to go. In the first round they beat Lithgow but haven’t done much since. Lithgow didn’t have their import player for that game though.”

LITHGOW LAZERS 90 (Issac Mack 38, Michael Cox 17, Adam Majoram 9) defeated BATHURST GOLDMINERS 83 (Kieran Osborn 28, Matt Gray 18, Keiran Rodwell 10)