On Saturday night they travelled to Townsville looking to make amends for the shock defeat, only to fall behind by 17 after being ambushed by a single-minded Crocs in the first quarter.

The Hawks will go back to the drawing board this week, hoping to repair their leaky defence before taking on the 36ers in Adelaide.

Wollongong forward Glen Saville believed his side didn't have the right attitude against the Crocs from the opening whistle.

"Given the disappointment from losing to the Gold Coast at home, (I thought) there would be a sense of urgency with the way we would come out and play," Saville said. "I guess we just didn't respond to the pressure very well."

Townsville coach Trevor Gleeson produced a masterstroke by benching starters John Rillie, Russ Hinder and Corey Williams.

The Crocs finished with three players scoring at least 20 points and had six finish in double figures.

The victory snapped a five-game losing skid.

"It was great to win, I kind of forgot what that felt like," Gleeson said.

"It's good to get back on track, hopefully we can really draw on that and I'm really happy for the guys because they have been working really hard. They came out of the blocks firing, which set the game up for us."

The Hawks out-rebounded the Crocs 49-36, but the home side connected on a blistering 58 per cent of their shots compared to 46 per cent by Wollongong.

On the plus side, the Hawks were 14/25 from the three-point line and made a tidy 25/32 free throws.