Wollongong floor general Rhys Martin has challenged the Hawks to take charge under the boards in Friday’s Heritage Week re-match with Adelaide at WIN Entertainment Centre.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Hawks are hosting the 36ers five days after going down 83-78 in Adelaide.
Little separated the teams in almost every main statistical category last Sunday, but the Sixers hauled in 51 rebounds to Wollongong’s 43.
The Hawks gave up 19 offensive boards and at last of half of those were at crucial moments.
‘‘It was a good effort by the boys at the end of that game to stay with it after we were down in the fourth quarter, but they had 19 offensive rebounds which was a little disappointing so that’s definitely an area we can improve this week,’’ Martin said.
‘‘If we can grab those few extra boards and fight that little bit harder for them, that might be the difference between winning and losing.’’
Last Sunday’s clash was tied at 51-all before the Hawks froze in the face of the Sixers’ full-court defensive pressure and found themselves down by 14 midway through the fourth quarter.
Wollongong got back in the contest by disrupting the Sixers’ preferred fast pace, scoring 13 unanswered points to cut the deficit to one with 15 seconds remaining.
Martin said the Hawks must work harder to impose their slower-paced style on Friday.
‘‘They wanted to play quick and we weren’t smart enough to just play at our own tempo,’’ the 185cm guard said.
‘‘They played really quick and sped it up, so we just have to be able to withstand the pressure and run our stuff. They like to switch defences and we’re going to get mismatches, so we just have to take care of the ball and exploit that when it happens.
‘‘Tempo is pretty much everything in a game. If you dictate that you dictate the style of play. We got dictated by them most of the game, so there’s definitely a couple of areas we can improve come Friday.’’
Both teams will be wearing specially designed throwback uniforms from 1986 and Hawks officials are hoping to draw some of the club’s older fans out of the woodwork.
Ticket prices are an old-school $19.86 for adults and $8.60 for kids.
A special presentation will be made to Hawks centre Larry Davidson in recognition of his 200th game for the club.
‘‘Laz has been around for a few seasons and he’s done really well this year coming back from a knee injury,’’ Martin said.
‘‘It’s been a pretty interesting career he’s had so 200 games with the club is an awesome milestone. Any time somebody reaches any kind of milestone you want to mark that with a win, so hopefully we can do that.’’