James Harper rebounded well against a bigger Hawks front line.

Hawks Blow Crocs out of the Water

Posted: Sat Oct 17, 1998 at 4:06 PM ET

The Wollongong Hawks collected their first win of the season this afternoon, blowing out the Townsville Crocs 99-86. The final margin is not a true indication of the difference between the two teams, Wollongong in control the entire match. The Hawks didn't waste any time about it, running up a 17-5 scoreline after 5 minutes of play. It was not all good news early however as Clayton Ritter was forced to leave the court with was believed to be a groin strain. But Hawks rookie David Andersen stepped right in to Ritters role, scoring 8 points on 4-5 shooting including a series of nice low post turn around jumpers. The Crocs then rallied behing Sam Mackinnon who gave them a spark with some tough defensive and atheletic moves to the cup. The Crocs had the lead down to 9 before Clayton Ritter (who recently checked back in) hit the trey on the buzzer, making it 35-23 at the first change. The second quarter started with a James Harper three point play but the Crocs couldn't get within 10 until the 4:00 mark (to go) when they strung together a 5-0 run to bring it to ten. The run was instigated by some quality full court pressure defence. And when Rose hit a three on the half time buzzer it was 52-43 to Wollongong. C.J Bruton with 14 at the half and James harper with 9.

Rob Rose begun the third quarter by hitting a nice jumper, but the Hawks responded with three's from Bruton and Ritter. Townsville managed to stay in touch in the third thanks to the accurate shooting of Rob Rose, full court defence and a big three from Brad Davidson. The hawks didn't do themselves any favour either, they couldn't buy a bucket in the latter stages of the third term and only an amazing three point play from C.J bruton prevented the Crocs from getting it under 10. The score at three quarter time; Hawks 71, Crocs 61. The fourth quarter and C.J Bruton took over and put his stamp on the game. He scored 16 points, made several key steals and crashed the boards in an awesome display. When Eric Cooks converted a three point play with just minutes to play the Hawks lead by 19 points. Townsville made a mimi fightback with 4 treys going down in the final minutes but the poise of Matt Campbell and C.J Bruton at the line down the stretch was enough to ice it for the Hawks. Bruton's stats: 31 points, 12 boards and the game M.V.P.

Video:  C.J Bruton beats the double team before driving down the lane, making the nice ball fake and getting 2 plus the foul.
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