Chris Garry | 10th May 2011| QT

TERRIBLE shooting marred the Ipswich Force men’s team in their opening round of the Queensland Basketball League.

The Force lost 94-83 to the Toowoomba Mountaineers at Clive Berghofer Stadium on Sunday.

The Force shot just 38 per cent from the field while Toowoomba shot 50 per cent.

Toowoomba, who had not won a game in two years, were excellent from behind the line, nailing 10 of their 15 three-point attempts for an exceptional 66 per cent success rate.

Former NBL veteran Ben Thompson was the Force’s worst offender, hitting just two of his 13 shot attempts.

But Thompson was not alone in the Force’s off night.

The second and third quarters were where the Force effectively lost the game, outscored 27-18 and 22-16.

Last year, the Force won both of their games against Toowoomba.

The day before the game, Force coach Chris Clarkson said he was worried about the game because he was missing three of his starters.

NBL players Brad Williamson and Tim Behrendorff were both missing from the Force line-up as was American college recruit Josh Black.

The three players would have all seen 30-plus minutes if they played.

Clarkson said it was the team’s lack of intensity and poor offence that cruelled their chances.

“We came out flat and didn’t meet Toowoomba’s intensity and we knew they would be up for the game so that was disappointing,” Clarkson said.

“Our shooting was poor but that was because we didn’t execute our offensive systems.”

However, Force centre Ryan Stolberg was exceptional, scoring 24 points and bagging 11 rebounds.

Point guard Luke Cann was also impressive.

Cann had 24 points, four assists and four rebounds in an excellent all-round performance.

“Both Luke and Ryan were good for us, but they had to play a lot of minutes and at times they were flat on the defensive end simply because they were tired,” Clarkson said.

“Next week Brad Williamson and Tim Behrendorff will be in the team and that will give us a lot of options with the roster.”

Meanwhile, the Force women’s team had an excellent win against a poor Toowoomba team.

The Force won 75-27 over a struggling Toowoomba side that shot just 24 per cent from the field.

The Force’s WNBL recruit Emma Langford had an outstanding game and showed she could be the dominant scorer the women’s team has been missing for several seasons.

Langford bagged 30 points at 51 per cent from the field.

She also took 14 rebounds and had four steals in a performance sure to put her in line for WQBL player of the week honours.

In a sign of how dominant Langford was, the Force’s next highest scorers were Ezria Parsons and Natasha Hasse who both had nine points.

This weekend, the Force men’s and women’s teams play a double-header.

Ipswich plays the Maroochydore Clippers at Maroochydore on Saturday before backing up against Brisbane Capitals in Ipswich on Sunday.

State Of Play:

Men’s state league: Toowoomba Mountaineers 94 (James Legan 29, Charles Dickerson 22) def Ipswich Force 83 (Ryan Stolberg 24, Luke Cann 24).

Women’s state league: Ipswich Force 75 (Emma Langford 30) def Toowoomba Mountaineers 27 (Jennifer Chard 6).