BASKETBALL
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Hawks coach Gordie McLeod is focusing on the positives after his side finished second in the game of the season against Melbourne on Friday night.
It's not the first time this season McLeod has been left looking for a silver lining following a loss, but he didn't have to look far after his side was narrowly edged out 103-98 in an overtime thriller.
The Hawks won everywhere but the scoreboard - shooting at 54 per cent from the field including a remarkable 58 per cent from the perimeter to lead by six in the dying minutes before a pair of clutch three-pointers to Nate Tomlinson and Dave Barlow sent the game into overtime.
United out-scored the Hawks 17-19 in the overtime period to keep the Hawks planted at the bottom of the ladder but McLeod found plenty to like about his team's performance.
"When you put yourself in a position to win one and it gets away from you, it hurts bad and it should," McLeod said.
"Of course it's [disappointing] when you get so close, we had overtime, and you get some chances. I thought we defended pretty well but in the end they made some big plays.
"Tomlinson hit a big three in the corner. He's been shooting 29 per cent throughout the year so we did a lot of things right ... but that was obviously a big bucket at the time in the game.
"Walker hit a couple of timely ones for them and they got contributions you need to have."
The Hawks made their own share of big plays particularly late in the game where a 10-0 run to start the fourth quarter gave them the lead in the dying stages.
Gary Ervin racked up 31 points hitting 59 per cent from the field while captain Oscar Forman went six of nine from the perimeter to add 20 points.
The Hawks also pulled down 38 rebounds to United's 25 but 18 turnovers for the game cam back to haunt them.
"You can always look at things you can do better but it was really pleasing to see our running game come back, it was good to see us playing with a lot more fluency," McLeod said.
"[Melbourne's] a very, very talented team. They're one of the top four teams going around so for us to play them so tough ... we should take something out of that.
"It took some pretty good performances to knock us over. We can go back and look at a whole lot of things, we can look at a few things defensively but it was really nice to see us play with a bit of flow.
"There was an aggressiveness there, the ball movement was good at times so we're startling to make some progress in those areas. That was pleasing."