NBL1 East: Maitland beaten 83-80 by Sutherland in grand final thriller

In typical fighting spirit, Maitland threw everything they had at the Sharks at Sydney Uni, including a clutch three-pointer from Billy Parsons with 11 seconds remaining.

However, the Mustangs simply ran out of time, a desperate Matt Gray shot from halfway on the buzzer missed, meaning Maitland had fallen at the final hurdle for the second straight season.

"The boys have got a lot of fight in them, they were down with not long left and we closed it to three and even when Matty put up that halfway shot at the end you still thought it had a chance of going in," coach Luke Boyle said.

"But it was unfortunate we ended up in that position, we had a bad third quarter defensively and it cost us.

"We had a big fourth obviously, a push to finish but there was a few calls that didn't go our way and we just weren't hitting from the perimeter."

The Mustangs led by four after the first quarter and scores were tied at half-time. The Sharks opened up a nine-point lead at the end of the third quarter and then did enough to hold out Maitland.

Boyle said sitting out US import Kevin Warren early after picking up three fouls proved costly. James Hunter (20 points) and Will Cranston-Lown (19 points) were again standouts for Maitland. Cranston-Lown was earlier awarded the league MVP award after a brilliant season.

"Will and big Jimmy had an awesome game," Boyle said. "(Will's) worked hard all year as soon as that grand final finished last year and he was disappointed from that, he and Matt (Gray) were straight back into the gym the next day, getting shots up and stuff like that so it's good it's paid off for him."

Despite reaching another grand final, Boyle said Maitland needed to learn from the experience.

"Everyone keeps saying you should be proud, back-to-back grand finals...but we've got to find a way to get there too," he said.

"I don't think it's personnel I think we've got plenty enough talent in what we've got at the moment.

"We've got a lot of young guys and that probably showed out as well a little bit, when things get tough just some of that maturity that you need to kind of push through that, I think with another year, we'll be competing again next year."

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