A drought-breaking win over Cairns and near-miss against Townsville have provided the Wollongong Hawks with a much-needed morale boost for their final 11 games of the season.
The Hawks halted a seven-game losing slide with Friday night’s 80-74 road victory over the Cairns Taipans, before going down 65-63 on the buzzer on Saturday against the Townsville Crocodiles.
Last-placed Wollongong’s record is 4-13 and they still need a minor miracle to steal a top four finish.
The addition of former Melbourne import Ayinde Ubaka should help immediately, though coach Gordie McLeod doesn’t want him to be seen as a saviour.
The 2009-10 NBL Coach of the Year was heartened by his team’s performances at the weekend and believes there is still time to make a run at the finals.
‘‘We made significant improvement in a number of areas,’’ McLeod said. ‘‘Overall, it was a good weekend and one we should take a lot of positives and confidence from.
‘‘There was a better level of consistency from all players and there were good signs with our system. There was a marked improvement on the boards and we did a great job looking after the ball in both games.
‘‘On Friday night it was good to have six guys in double figures.
‘‘The thing that probably let us down [against Townsville] was the three-point shot. If we shot the three a little better it could’ve been a different story.
‘‘It was really pleasing contributions we got from everyone.
‘‘We started to get some fluency with the way we played at the offensive and defensive ends of the floor, even though we didn’t put big numbers on the board.
‘‘It’s something we need to continue to build on.
‘‘If we want to get over the line, we just have to continue to do things a little better. Near is not good enough ... you want to win.’’
Title holders New Zealand and 2010 champions Perth have effectively lapped the field and should have little trouble claiming the top two spots.
But, aside from third-placed Townsville, every other team is still searching for week-to-week consistency.
The Hawks have to win at least nine of their final 11 games to have any chance of playing in the post-season, but McLeod won’t be drawn into what-if scenarios.
‘‘Our challenge is to get as many wins as we possibly can at the end of the year, and the only way we can do that is to set our focus on the task at hand. That’s all you can do,’’ he said.
‘‘We’ve been getting close in a number of games, but we haven’t been able to get over the line in close games. It all comes down to being able to execute the basic fundamentals under pressure.
‘‘We played two teams in the top four and we played them very well, so we should take a lot of confidence out of that,’’ the coach added.
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