A perfectly balanced scoring spread helped the Wollongong Hawks set up a crushing 96-75 victory over the Gold Coast Blaze on Saturday night at WIN Entertainment Centre.Six Wollongong players chalked up double figures, with Glen Saville, Mat Campbell and Rhys Martin finishing with 13 apiece.The fourth-placed Hawks improved to an NBL-best 10-1 at home and remained on course for a finals berth.
Full coverage of the Wollongong Hawks Wollongong took charge from the get-go, outscoring the visitors 33-18 in the opening quarter and taking a 59-40 lead into the half-time break.They were up by as many as 25 in the second half and the margin never fell below 20."Our defence was really good, our rebounding was really good and our execution at the offensive end was really good," Hawks coach Gordie McLeod said."It's a great win and it's really nice to see the guys get the reward for all the hard yakka they've been putting in. "Our guards were good, our big guys were good and our perimeter guys were great. "It's a really pleasing result and one we should take a lot of confidence from."With 12 wins from 22 games, the Hawks probably only need three more victories to secure a spot in the semi-finals.Three of their six remaining games are at home, including this Wednesday's clash with second-placed Townsville."There's a long way to go in the comp and there's plenty more chapters to unfold before the end of this NBL season," McLeod said."It's been a special (season) and there's going to be a lot more happening yet."The Hawks hit 51 per cent of their shots in the first half, including a sizzling 8/12 three pointers. Shots were dropping everywhere for the home side and they finished the night with 15/28 from long range.Centre Larry Davidson was solid with 12 points and eight rebounds, while backups Luke Martin and Tim Coenraad combined for 22 points.Wollongong also received an important lift from Dave Gruber and Tim Behrendorff off the bench, with the pair tallying a collective 14 points and nine rebounds."The contributions and spark and the energy we got off the bench was really pleasing," McLeod said."They gave us a really big boost and that was a real key for us."McLeod ran his entire bench in the closing stages, giving development squad member Gareth Dawson his first court time of the season.As usual, former Illawarra junior rep Zac Delaney received the loudest cheer when McLeod called his number.The diminutive guard finally broke his season-long scoring drought when he nailed the second of two free throws in the final seconds.Gold Coast were backing up from the previous night's home win over Adelaide and didn't have the legs to keep pace with the home team.They also missed injured guard Adam Gibson, who is due back from a quadriceps injury next weekend."We knew they played last night and we wanted to try and make sure we met their intensity level because that's how they get on top of a lot of teams," McLeod said."The big thing was to get that game and stay in the series. "We played the Gold Coast tight both times before (and lost) and it was good to get one back on them."
