Not even an outstanding effort from captain Mat Campbell could prevent the Wollongong Hawks from an 83-76 away loss to the Adelaide 36ers in their NBL game on Saturday night.
Campbell produced a game high 22 points and had seven rebounds, receiving good support from big men Cameron Tragardth with 18 points and Larry Davidson 11.
Former Hawks players Adam Ballinger and Cortez Groves led the 36ers well, Ballinger with 17 points, while Groves scored 15 points and eight assists.
John Gilchrist also was effective for Adelaide with 15 points - eight coming in the final term.
Hawks head coach Gordie McLeod was philosophical about the away loss.
"It's been really hard to win on the road this year," McLeod said yesterday.
"Not many teams have won on the road."
McLeod said a positive the Hawks have to take out of this game was not to get too down on themselves.
"Mat played well and we were always in the game," he said.
"We fought hard and we made a contest. But we turned over too much ball.
"There were defensive lapses which allowed them a couple of easy buckets.
"We will have to evaluate where we can improve in certain areas.
"The 36ers came out and played the way we expected they would do. Cortez had one of his better games so far. We knew he was going to come out hard.
"Ballinger has been going pretty well but I thought we did a pretty good job on him.
"We were pretty close in terms of points and percentages and the tempo of the game was okay.
"It just got away from us in a couple of spots which ended up costing us dearly.
"We've got to give Adelaide some credit."
Wollongong's star import Tywain McKee had a relatively quiet game but McLeod said it was up to other players to step up when that happened.
"It was probably not one of his better games. They obviously targeted him a bit," McLeod said.
"That's going to happen so that means that others will have to shoulder extra responsibility. We need to evaluate our performance and move on."
Tragardh scored 11 first-quarter points as the Hawks got out to a 14-8 lead but the scores were level 24-all at the first change.
Adelaide held a slender 39-38 half-time lead and were ahead 58-52 at three-quarter time.
The 36ers were out to a 70-61 lead with 5:17 remaining before Glen Saville responded with a triple and a breakaway dunk from a mid-court steal in the space of 18 seconds to reduce the gap to four points.
A Ballinger three-point bomb again gave the 36ers the ascendancy and they went on to record an 83-76 win.
Wollongong's win/loss record now stands at 7-4. The Hawks' next game is a rematch against Adelaide at WIN Entertainment Centre on Wednesday week, November 25.
Email a friend