Wollongong coach Gordie McLeod dismissed suggestions the Hawks copped the short end of the stick from referees in last weekend’s embarrassing thrashing from Gold Coast.
The Hawks are still licking their wounds after the 91-50 debacle against the Blaze and were forced to sit through a long video review session yesterday.
The margin represented Wollongong’s heaviest loss in 10 years, while their 50-point total was the second-lowest in club history.
Full coverage of the Hawks It doesn’t get any easier for the eighth-placed Hawks on Saturday, with titleholders and league leaders New Zealand coming to town.
The Breakers and Blaze play a similar brand of high-pressure defence and Wollongong will be in for another miserable evening if they don’t prepare themselves for their second bruising encounter in as many weeks.
They failed to cope with the Blaze’s rough-housing, but McLeod would not be drawn into discussions about the notion the home side was allowed to overstep the mark.
‘‘I’m not getting into that,’’ he said.
‘‘Our job is to play the game the way you’re allowed to play it, and if we don’t take advantage of that, that’s our problem. We were just totally outplayed. Let’s not look for excuses.
‘‘We weren’t able to get them out of anything.
‘‘We got beat in the effort areas and they generated everything from their defence. You try to get yourself ready to play against that.
‘‘You have to be able to really execute and work hard to get points.
‘‘Right from the word go, they got on the front foot and gave it to us.
‘‘We got beat on the boards again, we shot two of 18 from the three-point line and that puts you under a lot of pressure when you’re not getting stuff to the basket.
‘‘We’ve only got ourselves to blame for the result.’’
The Hawks (5-14) went down to the Breakers by 16 in the season’s opening round before reversing the result with an 81-63 road victory in round six.
Coming off last week’s 83-77 defeat of second-placed Perth, New Zealand have won their past five games and will be confident of adding to the Hawks’ misery.
‘‘We have to evaluate and move on and create a new game plan,’’ McLeod said.
‘‘You try to make progress and be the best team you can be. At the moment it’s at the wrong end of the ledger for us.
‘‘We have to fight and work hard physically and mentally and find ways to get over the line.
‘‘You’re heavily scouted, everyone knows what everyone’s doing, so it really comes down to executing the simple, basic fundamentals of the game and being able to get open and handle pressure and execute your stuff under that pressure.
‘‘We didn’t meet fire with fire against the Blaze and we paid the price dearly.
‘‘If you’re off your game a little bit in this league and you’re playing a quality team that’s on a roll ... but we’re not the only team in the league that’s copped it.
‘‘The point is we need to find ways to get the best out of this group and that’s the challenge we’ve all got.’’
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