Malcolm Grant in action against Townsville. Picture: KEN ROBERTSON
Wollongong coach Gordie McLeod applauded his side's dogged defensive display in last night's 86-62 home win over Townsville.
The Hawks jumped back into the top four with the convincing defeat of the Crocodiles and are looking forward to hosting Adelaide this Friday.
Accurate three-point shooting (13-22) was a feature of their victory, but it was at the other end of the court where Wollongong did their best work.
After allowing the Crocs to blaze away at a 57 per cent shooting clip in the first quarter, the Hawks limited them to just 13/40 field goals over the final three periods.
Townsville centre Luke Nevill was completely shut down, attempting just two shots and finishing with four points - eight below his season average.
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McLeod was frustrated with his team's offence at times, but was full of praise for the defence.
"There's no frustration with our defence or our effort or our rebounding. The guys fought hard and that really laid the foundation for what was a great win," McLeod said.
"We got good contributions from everywhere and had great energy."
The Hawks had a season-low seven turnovers against the Crocs.
"We really handled the pressure and valued the ball a lot better. A big thing tonight was [Hawks guard] Adris [Deleon] getting to the rim and being able to collapse the defence. He didn't get a single turnover. We were able to move the ball out and get our perimeter guys going.
Townsville coach Paul Woolpert was critical of starters Gary Ervin and Peter Crawford.
"Defensively we were horrendous. We didn't follow the scouting report. Once we went small in the fourth quarter and started switching everything, we got it back to 10 points and we had effort. But the effort from our starting group wasn't what we needed. We needed a better effort than that.
"[Ervin] was part of the problem. We weren't getting it done defensively. When we went with the bench and went smaller and started switching everything, that was when Gary was off the floor. I took Gary, Luke and PC out and we started playing better."