Wollongong coach Gordie McLeod has challenged the Hawks to be at their very best for tonight's clash with surging Adelaide at WIN Entertainment Centre.The third-placed 36ers (6-4) are effectively the NBL's hottest team, winning four of their past five games, including an 83-76 defeat of the Hawks in Adelaide on November 14.The Sixers kept Wollongong scoring leader Tywain McKee to a season-low six points on 3/14 shooting that night, while the normally productive Glen Saville managed just seven points and one rebound and talented rookie Tim Coenraad missed all six of his field goal attempts.
Full coverage of the Wollongong Hawks Mat Campbell and Cam Tragardh shouldered most of the offensive load and McLeod is adamant a more balanced scoring spread is required for tonight's rematch."We didn't have enough guys in Adelaide playing at the level that we need them to play at," he said."We need that consistency and we need more players playing to the level they're capable of."Our defence was reasonable and we did a lot of good things, but we did some poor things, and those poor things seem to escalate when you're on the road."It's really been hard to win on the road this year. We competed in most areas, but there was a couple of areas where we broke down."If you give up eight or 10 cheap points, it's going to hurt you in this league, especially on the road."We broke down in transition defence a few times and made some mistakes, and they're the sort of team that's capable of getting really hot from the three-point line. They've also got some players that can get in the paint and break your defence down, so we're going to have to be very good in those areas."The Hawks have not played since losing to the Sixers and last week's steamy weather made for a testing week at training."We tried to get the work in, but it's been a pretty hot and tough week and it's always tough when you've been playing a lot of games to come back and practise," McLeod said."We've been working hard to try and push on and make some improvements, but now we really need to hone in and get ready for what's going to be a really tough contest."The Hawks (7-4) have a share of top spot with Perth and are hellbent on avenging the loss to Adelaide before confronting the Breakers in New Zealand tomorrow week.The Sixers take on Townsville on the road on Friday night, knowing a pair of wins this week would do their top-four prospects the world of good.
