Nevill holds key to victory against Melbourne

Nevill was Wollongong’s standout in the 82-77 defeat of the Kings, causing headaches for his opponents at both ends of the court with 14 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks.

He also made two important plays in crunch time to help secure the Hawks’ third win of the season.

The 2.18m centre’s coach and teammates are counting on more of the same in Friday night’s home clash with Melbourne.

‘‘We’d definitely like to see that, not only from him but from everyone,’’ coach Gordie McLeod said.

‘‘We probably had our most consistent performance across the board as a team from a number of players. We were moving the ball better as a group, and when you’re getting four or more players into double figures and other guys scoring close to that, that’s when you’re really spreading the load offensively.

‘‘One of the challenges for us is getting Luke involved, but the really pleasing thing about last week’s game was that Luke got himself involved.

‘‘He did a really good job on the boards and a did a good job of changing shots and blocking shots, and that’s what we need. As a team we need to continue to improve how we use him as an offensive weapon.’’

Hawks guard Tyson Demos has been used sparingly lately.

Demos missed the round six road clash with New Zealand after undergoing major dental surgery and has played a combined 17 minutes off the bench over the past five games.

‘‘A lot of it is that we’re loaded at that position with both our imports in the one and two spots and Rhys [Martin] in that one spot, so that makes it hard,’’ McLeod said.

‘‘At times it’s either fitting him into one of those spots if someone gets into foul trouble, or possibly playing a bit of three. Or we play smaller, which is what we ended up doing against Sydney with the three guards.’’

Wollongong (3-12) have to win to keep their slim finals hopes afloat.

‘‘The challenge for us is to be better than we were last week and that’s what we’ve been endeavouring to do this week at practice,’’ McLeod said.

‘‘Melbourne can hurt you offensively in a variety of ways and we’ve been working on ways to try and disrupt what they do.’’