While veteran sharp-shooter Kirk Penney deservedly grabbed most of the attention post-match with his 29 points and five assists, the real story was the huge contribution that came from the Hawks bench.

With only a day’s break between Thursday’s emotion-charged  97-96 loss to Melbourne, coach Rob Beveridge needed a big contribution from his non-starters and he got it in spades.

Illawarra had eight players on the score sheet inside the first eight minutes and at the final buzzer had combined for a total of 86 minutes 36 points and out-rebounded the starting five 21-14.

After missing Thursday’s loss to Melbourne, Tim Coenraad continued to make the most of his ‘‘promotion’’ to the bench with 13 points at 50 per cent shooting in his 17 minutes while Cody Ellis had 10 points in 20 minutes on the floor in his best performance of the season.

Rhys Martin had six rebounds and five assists in his longest stint (25 minutes) on court since returning from injury and Larry Davidson continued his form resurgence with nine points at 66 per cent from the field and five rebounds.

After a gruelling road trip to Melbourne, it gave Beveridge the luxury of keeping his big three of Penney, AJ Ogilvy (19 points) and Kevin Lisch (12) to less than 30 minutes on the floor.

It’s a system that wouldn’t work in a group of fragile egos but Beveridge said he’s never coached a more selfless team.

‘‘We are one of the most unselfish groups I’ve ever coached,’’ Beveridge said.

‘‘As we’ve evolved as the season’s gone on, when we start to move that ball and we’ve got so many shooters, we’ve got inside-outside action.

‘‘It’s just a repetition thing and a respect the players have for each other.

‘‘It’s such a tight group and they honestly don’t care [about individual stats].

‘‘Kev Lisch had two points at halftime and he’s averaging 20.

‘‘It’s just awesome that he doesn’t care about those things.

‘‘Kirk’s the same, he doesn’t care about points he just happens to be the guy making shots at the time.’’

As one third of the NBL’s most potent ‘big three’ Penney knows he will continue to attract most of the plaudits but said all 10 members of the squad have an integral role to play.

‘‘It’s great to have Timmy back because every player is so important to us,” Penney said.

‘‘Maybe you look at Tim not playing [against Melbourne] and say it’s not a big deal but it’s a huge deal.

‘‘It changes the whole dynamic of the game, changes our minutes.

‘‘[Against Sydney] we didn’t have to play a lot of minutes but we were able to be really really effective because those guys were doing such a great job. 

“Our roles are well established and everyone has a chance to score because we’re so talented all through the team.”