Lance Hurdle shoots against the 36ers.Picture: GETTY IMAGES
NBL
Four straight wins to start the season and still the Wollongong Hawks say they are nowhere near peaking.
Wollongong have beaten opponents by an average margin of 11.3 points and are relishing the opportunity to test themselves against undefeated title favourites Perth this Sunday at WIN Entertainment Centre.
"Obviously we're very happy with the way we've started but the real exciting thing for us is that there's plenty of room for improvement," coach Gordie McLeod said.
Interest in the Hawks is gaining momentum around town and club officials are hoping a bumper crowd is on hand to make life hell for the visiting Wildcats.
"As the season goes along, we keep playing the right way, but we haven't played great yet," Wollongong off-season recruit Adris Deleon said.
"We're still trying to figure out all the things we can do on the court together. I'm trying to figure out what they do best, they're trying to figure out the way I play and the way [import] Lance [Hurdle] plays, so there's still a process we're going through.
"The good thing is we're playing good basketball right now and we still haven't played at the best we can play, so we're always trying to improve ourselves at practice."
Deleon and Hurdle combined for 39 points in Sunday's 77-63 road win over Adelaide and made all the right decisions when the game was on the line in the fourth quarter.
While Deleon was the game MVP against the 36ers, Hurdle enjoyed his most productive performance of the season with 16 points on 7/13 shooting, four rebounds, two assists, one steal and zero turnovers in 27 minutes.
"Lance is still realising how quick he is compared to other guys and how much pressure that quickness can put on the defence," Hawks captain Oscar Forman said.
"He's seen in [Townsville guard and former Hawks import] Gary Ervin's game that Gary's quick and can get layups just by busting it out in the open court, and I've spoken to Lance and told him he's quicker than Gary. Lance can get the same stuff when he puts his mind to it."
The Hawks' effort against the Sixers showed they can come from behind to win.
Despite trailing 10-0 in the opening minutes, they calmly weathered the storm before taking control in the fourth period when they sensed the home side was crumbling.
"They caused us problems early and did a good job disrupting us, making it very difficult for us to get any fluency with our offence," McLeod said of the 36ers.
"They made some shots early and got on a bit of a roll, but after that we did a pretty good job of slowing them down and taking them out of their transition game.
"We struggled at different times, but what was evident is that you need players to make big plays, and Adris did that for us. He really took a lot of pressure off our half-court offence. That's what we need, guys who can break some people down and get to the hole and score.
"He was great down the stretch and our defence and rebounding really complemented that."
