Wollongong Hawks coach Eric Cooks will be looking for more consistency from his team when they take on the Townsville Crocodiles at Townsville on Saturday night.
The Hawks suffered a heartbreaking one-point loss to the Gold Coast Blaze at WIN Entertainment Centre last Friday after leading at one stage in the second quarter by 14 points, and by 60-49 at half-time.
Cooks was optimistic the Hawks would put that disappointment behind them and bounce back against the Crocs.
"I definitely thought we were a bit flat at times and I thought we had been playing more consistent than that," Cooks said.
"But at the end of the day they shot the ball pretty well and played pretty well and, when the game was on the line, they won it."
Cooks pinpointed a couple of areas for improvement on last Friday's performance, namely shutting down opponents trying to penetrate the lanes on defence and crashing the boards with more intensity at the offensive end, which was down against Gold Coast.
Some of the Hawks' shooting also left a bit to be desired.
That aside, the Hawks were in control in the first half but instead of converting their significant advantage in that period were lethargic immediately after the long break, missing several scoring chances and allowing Gold Coast to fight back to within four points, 62-58.
To add to their woes, Wollongong played the final eight minutes minus Glen Saville, who fouled out, and his experience was sadly missing in the tense closing stages which culminated in former Hawk Daniel Joyce burying a three-pointer to snatch a 111-110 win.
In a desperate last-play surge, Hawks point guard Kavossy Franklin claimed in vain that he was fouled as he attempted a potential match-winning basket.
It was a costly loss for the Hawks who gave up a chance to climb from the middle of the competition ladder, meaning their away game against the Crocs assumes even greater proportions.
"It's unfortunate," Cooks said. "I thought we should have put them (Blaze) away earlier and I thought we had some lapses there.
"Obviously it didn't help losing Glen Saville so early in the fourth quarter.
"It was frustrating to lose that game. I thought we played better than them and unfortunately we did."
Cooks and Gold Coast coach Brendan Joyce played down a confrontation after the game when the Hawks mentor went to shake his opponent's hand. Cooks had been Joyce's assistant coach at the Hawks for a long time before Joyce was fired almost two years ago.
"Obviously I don't hold any grudges," Cooks said of the incident.
He added that Joyce may have been misinformed about something that supposedly had been said in the wake of the Hawks' two-point win over Gold Coast at WIN Entertainment Centre on October 24.
"I know he's a professional and (it) won't go any further," Cooks said.
"Like I said, I think it was heat of the moment.
"I understand that he probably is under a bit of a pressure situation over there.
"To his credit he got to win.
"Obviously he was pretty rapt at that and obviously vented some of his frustration."
Joyce said there was no slight against Cooks.
"It's probably something that I learnt today about some things that were said to one of my players," he said.
"So I'll just leave it at that."
Joyce said the most pleasing aspect of his team's win was more about the fightback from his players.
"What 10, 12 down, (James) Harvey out with a hamstring and young guys coming in and doing a very good job to assist us to get across the line," Joyce said.
"I don't know what we've done, but again another injury.
"This is the first time we've played with a full team for the year.
"The hoop gods shined upon us at the end of the game but it's obviously disappointing to lose Harves.
"But it's an unbelievable win and we can take some momentum and some energy from this."
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