The defeats just keep piling up for Pinelands.
And those have nothing on the side’s latest loss.
As if being winless wasn’t bad enough, basketball’s Premier League pretenders are about to lose Ramon Simmons for the foreseeable future too, after the prolific swingman suffered an ankle injury in Sunday’s 70-64 defeat by Clapham Bulls at the Wildey Gym.
It’s just the latest setback of an already bleak 2012 campaign – one that was supposed to see an extremely talented Pine team finally vie for their first league championship this millennium.
But the only title Pinelands seem worthy of is that of the league’s biggest underachievers, with the contenders looking more like pretenders after starting the season dropping three straight.
Worse yet, the Pine couldn’t even get the better of a previously winless Bulls team that’s going through more than its share of well-publicised issues.
However, Clapham’s drama finally took a backseat to a bigger story, as a hush enveloped the Pinelands’ supporters after Simmons landed awkwardly on Halley Franklyn’s foot while hauling in a long pass.
The Pine’s leading scorer instantly crumbled to the floor and lay there, writhing in pain for minutes before teammates eventually had to help their hobbled captain off the court.
This was just three minutes into third quarter with Clapham clinging to a 35-31 lead – a cushion that the Bulls threatened to blow open on Simmons’ exit by pushing the advantage to eight.
Pinelands briefly rallied behind three-pointers from Damon Thompson and Neil Leacock to pull within two (48-46), only for Clapham to reopen a 59-50 lead at the start of the fourth.
Charles Vanderpool ensured the Pine didn’t go away quietly, scoring ten quick points on a series of drives, lay-ups and free throws as Pinelands’ deficit was just four (65-61) following a needless technical on Bulls coach Barry Rock.
And the lead should have been just two inside the final minute as Clapham turned over an ensuing inbounds pass leading to a foul on Vanderpool underneath the ring. But the Pine forward clanked both shots from the charity stripe, instantly leading to an uncontested lay-up from Franklyn at the other end.
Leacock answered with a trey on the very next possession (67-64). However, time was never on Pinelands’ side as they had to foul the rest of the way. Rahiim Gibbons led Bulls (1-2) with 25 points, Kodia Leacock added 13 and Vanderpool had 18 points for the Pine.
Earlier, Darren Hunte had all but two of his 15 points in a stirring fourth-quarter rally as Mpact Station Hill Cavaliers came back from 17 points down in the second half before overcoming Roll-A-Way St John’s Sonics 82-79.
The win was the Cavs’ third in as many games, keeping the new-look Station Hill side’s unbeaten record intact.
But that unbeaten start seemed in serious jeopardy when Akeem Marsh and Dwayne Kellman put St John’s ahead 60-43 midway through the third quarter.
However, the Cavs went to their small-ball line-up in the fourth, applying full court pressure which created turnovers that they duly converted into transition points the other way.
Station Hill didn’t tie the game until the final minute before eventually taking the lead on a pair of Stefan Yard free throws with 16.8 seconds remaining.
In the night’s first game, Manuel Alleng had 17 points and ten rebounds as Warrens kept Colombian Emeralds International Senators winless via a 77-61 rout.
