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Illawarra have backed up their hard-fought win against Sydney with a 108-70 thumping of the Townsville Crocs.
The Hawks received a standing ovation from their loyal fans, pleased with their team’s performance and free cheeseburgers, as they registered 100 points for the first time at home this season.
“We’ve started to find that balance now between pinging from the perimeter and getting it inside,” an elated Hawks coach Rob Beveridge said.
“We made 48 points in the paint tonight at 70-something per cent and that’s just outstanding.”
Although typically a perimeter-shooting team, the Hawks easily dominated the Crocs inside the paint, finding easy scores as they tore the Townsville team apart.
Kirk Penney backed up his man of the match performance on Wednesday night with another big game; bagging 31 points featuring five three-pointers and two and-ones.
“We know how we need to start games really aggressively and really intense, Bevo’s (Beveridge) been telling us for weeks, but finally we are getting it and it’s a great place to be right now,” Penney said.
The Hawks held an 18-7 lead five minutes into the match and never looked back as they continued to pile bucket after bucket on the hapless Crocs.
The only negative for the Hawks came early in the second half when centre AJ Ogilvy limped off after banging knees, but it doesn’t look to be a serious injury.
Replacement centre Larry Davidson stepped up for the injured star producing his best performance of the season with nine points, nine rebounds and four assists.
“He [Davidson] brings so much stuff that you can’t really put into stats; screening, boxing out and doing those little things,” Beveridge said.
Last season’s MVP Brian Conklin was the best player for the beaten Crocs, scoring 20 points as his team registered their 10th loss of the season, after a close-fought loss against Melbourne United on Thursday night.
“They pressured us early, got the scoreboard rolling and shot the ball well… they steamrolled us,” Crocs coach Shawn Dennis said.
“We didn’t follow the defensive plan that we set and we paid the price.”
The Hawks are now at six wins and six losses, putting them within reach of the top four.
“We have a big challenge coming up this Thursday against Melbourne,” Penney said.
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