With a thick cloak of smoke hanging over Wollongong, both teams and the 3,500 fans in attendance shared a minutes applause in honour of Rural Fire Service personnel fighting horrendous fires across the country.

They turned on an entertaining clash in the aftermath, with the Hawks leading a back and forth affair after four quarters before ultimately being overrun by a fast-finishing United.

Chris Goulding proved the chief destroyer with 21 points but he was ably assisted by Stanton Kidd, who also finished with 21 points at a handy 5-8 from deep.

Mitch McCarron's 16 points were telling down the stretch, while Shawn Long finished with 17 points to secure an important win on a tough road stretch.

Tim Coenraad was red-hot early, dropping 11 of his 18 points in the opening term, while Josh Boone was again impressive with 12 points and 13 rebounds.

Todd Blanchfield had 14 points while Darington Hobson's play-making abilities were again on show with 12 points and nine assists despite coughing up five turnovers.

The latter proved the story of the Hawks night, with their 19 turnovers to United's nine a telling number along with just four offensive boards to the visitors' 11.

"They certainly showed their class at the end there, they probably did what they were supposed to do," Hawks coach Matt Flinn said post-match.

"They're stacked across the floor with talent. I'm not saying where not, but I just felt they executed when they needed to and there were a few crucial turnovers for us.

"We've been building something here and we've really turned a corner in the last month with our style of play, I just felt we went away from that a little bit.

"We normally generate a lot of second chance points off the glass, we weren't able to do that tonight, we threw the ball away too many times at crucial moments and that generated some easy buckets for them.

"When you're playing on the road those cheap points are like gold and they got to the foul-line, we didn't. It was certainly our plan to get some ball movement and attack them off penetration but we weren't able to get it done."

The club's horrendous injury run continued, with the return of Sam Froling offset by the late withdrawal of AJ Ogilvy with a shoulder injury, while Dave Andersen pulled out even later in the warm-up.

"It's just the story of our season," Flinn said.

"[Ogilvy] had a cortisone injection in his shoulder two days ago and it just didn't settle. We gave him every chance but he wasn't right.

"Then Dave in the warm up didn't feel right either. I got that message in the first timeout that he wasn't ready to go either. I'm never going to sit here and make excuses but, when they happen on the fly, they have an impact on your game plan.

"We spent some time with Dave at training this week and he got through a few sessions we were happy with so to not have him puts pressure on others.

"Sam Froling's had three practice sessions and we had to call on him for his 11 minutes and I thought he did a good job. It's the story of our year but we'll continue to move forward in a positive manner."

It could leave them undermanned for a tough trip to Adelaide on Monday, with the 36ers no doubt bent on revenge after being shown up by the Hawks on their previous trip.

Coenraad was hot early, opening proceedings from deep. Goulding answered with a pair of triples, but Hobson's first from the perimeter and Coenraad's third straight after forced Dan Vickerman into a timeout with the hosts up 14-6.

Long had three out of the resumption, forcing Boone to sit with his second foul. It did little to slow the Hawks, with Coenraad taking his first-quarter tally to 11 in a 22-11 start to the game.

Threes from McCarron and Kidd and a steal from She Ili put a quick dent in the margin at 22-19, forcing Flinn to burn his first timeout. Acuil had six to close the term as the hosts took a remarkable quarter-time lead on a pair of free-throws from Ili.

The Hawks opened the second quarter with a 10-4 run punctuated by a three from Sunday Dech before an unsportsmanlike foul call on Coenraad changed momentum.

Goulding went two of two from the line, with Barlow nailing a three on the extra possession. Goulding followed up with back-to-back threes for a five-point lead, forcing Flinn to call time on an 11-0 run.

Goulding extended it to 13 from the line, extending his tally to 10 for the term, before Hobson halted the run from deep.

The hosts briefly cut things back to three on a long bomb from Blanchfield but United took a five-point cushion to halftime on a three from Kidd.

McCarron had four to start the third but a timely steal from Naar sparked a 13-4 run, punctuated by a three from Blanchfield that leveled the scores at 63 apiece.

They took the lead on the skipper's seconds triple of the quarter, with Glover following up from deep. Kidd fired back but Naar completed a three-point play for a 74-72 lead at the final break.

Both sides traded early buckets with a three from Barlow opening a four-point mini-break. It stretched to seven on an and-one from McCarron, with Kidd extending it to double digits with four minutes to play.

Coenraad nailed an important three but the visitors again stretched things to 10 on an and-one from Goulding, the hosts never going close to reeling in the deficit.