LANCE HURDLE
BASKETBALL
A depleted Wollongong Hawks will await further tests on import Lance Hurdle and centre Larry Davidson before assessing their fitness for the mouth-watering NBL opener against the Sydney Kings.
The Hawks were forced to use just an eight-man rotation in the final of the NBL pre-season tournament against Perth, in which they succumbed 72-60 to the Wildcats.
Injuries to Hurdle (hamstring) and Davidson (knee) was the only blight on a productive trip to Dandenong in which the Hawks finished their pre-season with a 9-2 record.
Davidson and Hurdle, along with the sidelined Tyson Demos (knee), now face a race against the clock to be fit for Wollongong's opener at the WIN Entertainment Centre on October 5.
"We had a couple of good wins and the only dampener on the weekend was Larry had a knock to the knee and we had to sit him out for the last two games," Hawks coach Gordie McLeod said.
"Lance Hurdle's hamstring got tight mid-way through the second game and we had to pull him. It put us under a lot of pressure in regards to bodies playing three games in three days.
"After those things happened we were really pleased to get through the rest of the weekend without any [further] issues."
McLeod said the Hawks' medical staff would make a full assessment on both Hurdle and Davidson this week.
In their absence Oscar Forman rained down five three-pointers in a 19-point effort against the Wildcats on Saturday night, but it wasn't enough to prevent Perth from winning their third straight pre-season tournament.
Forman was the only Hawks player to post double figures in the final, but McLeod was more concerned with integrating Adris Deleon and rookie Auryn MacMillan into his structure.
"A real positive for us was actually getting Adris in with the group," McLeod said of the former Gold Coast floor marshall. "That's our real challenge now - he's had no practice time with the team.
"Next week and the week leading into the Kings game we really need to accelerate our development as a team by getting Adris really up to speed, as well as Lance and Auryn."
Rhys Martin (24 points) and Dave Gruber (19 points, 12 rebounds) starred in Wollongong's dramatic 105-104 double overtime win over Adelaide on Thursday.
Hurdle made a big impression on his new team-mates, draining the winning jumper with just 2.6 seconds on the clock in the second period of overtime.
Dan Jackson then added 14 points as the Hawks cruised past Townsville 75-53 the next day.
McLeod said he saw enough of the eight sides to suggest this year's league will be tight.
"If anything came out of the weekend, it's the closeness of what the competition is going to be," he said.
"Anyone's going to be capable of beating anyone else. Our first game went to double overtime and a number of other games there were only a couple of baskets in it."