The Hawks were behind at every change before out-scoring the Kings 31-23 in the final quarter to clinch an 82-77 victory.

Last-placed Wollongong (3-15) need a miracle to finish in the top four, but they’ve won two of their past three games and haven’t stopped striving to improve.

‘‘I’m pleased for the guys, because people don’t see the hard work they put in on a day to day basis and they’ve really been working their tails off,’’ McLeod said.

‘‘It was a great team effort. It’s pleasing to put a good performance together for our loyal fans that are sticking by and it was nice to get one back on the Kings.

‘‘We were in the grind the whole game. We struggled a bit at the start and then from the second quarter we built momentum and really fought it out and got a tough win.

‘‘The really pleasing thing was the contributions we got across the whole group. That’s what all teams want, that good balance of a number of people involved.’’

The Hawks were down by eight after the first quarter before cutting Sydney’s lead to two at half-time.

Kings superstar Josh Childress (34 points, 12 rebounds) continued to be a one-man wrecking crew in the second half, but Wollongong patiently hung around and seized their opportunity in the fourth period.

Guard Rhys Martin scored 11 of his 15 points in the last quarter, while centre Luke Nevill nailed a long jump-shot with a minute remaining before swatting away Sydney guard Kendrick Perry’s lay-up attempt to seal the win.

Nevill finished with 14 points, 12 rebounds, four blocks and two steals in 22 minutes off the bench.

Guard Gary Ervin tallied 13 points, five assists and two steals, while Jahii Carson chipped in 16 points off the bench.

‘‘Luke’s effort off the bench was really good. He changed a lot of shots [defensively] for us,’’ McLeod said.

‘‘We had consistent form across a number of players and we haven’t had that enough in a lot of the other games we’ve played. We were playing a good team that are in form, so it was good to get one over on them.

‘‘We’ve been close a number of times and haven’t got there, so to get this one is really pleasing.’’

The Hawks have to win at least 10 of their final 13 games to have any hopes of snatching a finals berth. They host Melbourne on Friday night and play their next two games at home against Cairns and Perth.

‘‘We’ve made some progress over the last three weeks and been moving in a positive direction, so we need to accelerate that development and keep it going,’’ McLeod said.

‘‘Hopefully we can build on this and get some momentum from it.’’