Sunday, February 17: Wollongong Hawks: 86 (Deleon 28, Forman 22, Grant 12). Townsville Crocodiles: 62 (Blanchfield 13, Ervin 11, Crawford 11)
. Crowd: 3006 at WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong.

THE Wollongong Hawks have given their playoff hopes a much-needed boost following a 86-62 victory over the Townsville Crocodiles at the WIN Entertainment Centre on Sunday.

Wollongong’s star duo of Adris Deleon (28 points) and Oscar Forman (22 points, 6-of-7 threes) led the way from the opening minutes, when Deleon notched the first four points of the game.

Deleon then powered in 11 of Wollongong’s 18 third-quarter points to again ignite the Hawks, who snapped their five-game losing run at home and pushed their way into a tie for fourth place with arch rivals the Sydney Kings.

”The big thing tonight was Adris being able to get to the rim and being able to collapse the defence and we were able to move the ball and get our perimeter guys going,” Hawks coach Gordie McLeod said.

”Adris didn’t have a turnover, that’s a big thing when you’re running the team and teams are coming after you.”

Todd Blanchfield topped the scores for Townsville with 13 points and 12 rebounds, while Gary Ervin and Peter Crawford each added 11.

– Asa Schuster, Pagemasters.

More: Wollongong Hawks official website.