Last night the Wollongong Hawks failed in their bid to sweep Townsville in the best-of-three semi-final series, with the Crocodiles' comprehensive 82-53 home victory forcing a deciding third game on Saturday at WIN Entertainment Centre (WEC).

The Hawks were confident of claiming the series in enemy territory after a comfortable 19-point win in last Friday's opening game at the WEC.

But they were brought crashing back to earth and will be looking forward to returning home and playing in front of an anticipated sell-out crowd on Saturday night.

General admission tickets will be on sale at 9am today from the usual outlets. Hawks season-ticket holders have until tomorrow midday to buy their usual seat from the WEC Ticketek box office.

Full coverage of Hawks semi-final in Thursday's Mercury.