Blaze score 106-92 win over Hawks - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Blaze score 106-92 win over Hawks

20/10/2007 10:18:48 PM Comments (0)

Gold Coast coach Brendan Joyce enjoyed the last laugh in his battle with former club Wollongong when the Blaze upset the Wollongong Hawks 106-92 in round five of the NBL.

Blaze import Jason Crowe led a host of contributors with 28 points to help Joyce exact revenge on the club with sensationally sacked him midway through last season after almost 12 years as head coach.

The Blaze got off to an ideal start at the Gold Coast Convention Centre, scoring 10 unanswered points before Hawks stalwart Mat Campbell put the visitors on the board with a timely triple.

Campbell continued to feature throughout the term and, along with Kavossy Franklin, helped the Hawks close the gap to four points before the Gold Coast broke away for a second time to lead 38-30 at quarter-time.

The Blaze threatened to run away with the game early in the second term but their offence flow stalled midway through the quarter.

A Franklin triple to wrap up the first half narrowed the deficit to seven (60-53).

The Hawks got the better of a scrappy third term, but only just, and trailed 79-73 heading into the final quarter.

After a threatening to relinquish the lead, the Blaze stepped up through Crowe and Juaquin Hawkins to power to back-to-back wins for the first time in the club's short history.

Franklin finished with a game-high 30 points, eight rebounds and six assists while Cameron Tragardh (21 points, 10 rebounds) and stalwart Mat Campbell (17 points) were both solid.

For the Blaze, Hawkins (19 points, eight rebounds), James Harvey (16, six rebounds), Casey Frank (13), Pero Cameron (12 points, seven rebounds) and Scott McGregor (12 points nine rebounds) all joined Crowe in double figures.

Post-game, Joyce maintained his mid-week stance that a win against the Hawks would be no better than any other victory.

"It's good to beat them but when you put it in perspective, I've got a job (with the Blaze) for the next four years and we're going to play them more than once," he said.

"There's no point getting all pumped up for one game in particular.

"The important thing is that we win for us, to put ourselves in the eight."

Although pleased with the result, Joyce said the club wasn't ready to upset a league heavyweight on current form.

"I didn't like what we did in parts of that game," he said.

"We let the shot clock run out, we didn't execute consistently. We've got a lot of work to do.

"We can take care of Adelaide next week but if you talk about beating Brisbane or Sydney or Melbourne, we need that consistency."

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