BOXSCORE

A fourth-quarter surge by the Wollongong Hawks has seen them slip past the Cairns Taipans 77-67 at the WIN Entertainment Centre on Wednesday.

Wollongong staggered through three lacklustre quarters, but still managed to cling to the lead at each break, before pulling away 22-17 in the final ten minutes.

Hawks centre Larry Davidson set the foundation with a rock-solid 14-point, nine rebound effort, including a pair of threes in the opening moments and a key three-point play in the fourth.

Despite some hiccups from the line (4-of-9), Tywain McKee (six assists) continued his stellar early-season form, registering seven of his game-high 19 points down the stretch.

Cairns struggled with a sub 40 percent shooting clip all night and finally unravelled in the fourth when it registered just five field goals.

Skip Mills (12 points, seven rebounds and six assists) and Rich Melzer (11 points) topped the scores for the Taipans, who struggled to find an offensive rhythm on their way to a fourth-straight loss.

Wollongong enjoyed a hot start from long-range, as Davidson drained a pair of threes to pace the Hawks at 12-12, before triples by Glen Saville and Tim Coenraad helped create a six-point buffer (20-14).

Davidson posted eight points in the first, while Gary Boodnikoff and Dusty Rychart combined for ten for Cairns as Wollongong led 24-19.

McKee found his groove in the second and began picking apart the Taipans' interior; he linked up twice with Cam Tragardh as the Hawks pushed ahead 33-25.

A Mills three sparked a much-needed 9-2 surge for the Snakes, Ian Crosswhite, Melzer and Boodnikoff each connected on jumpers to trim the deficit to one (35-34).

The Hawks held on to lead 40-37 at halftime, with Davidson and McKee accounting for 18 points and Boodnikoff posting nine for the visitors.

Wollongong suffered a three-minute scoring-drought to open the third and was further hampered when Saville was forced to sit with his third foul.

Cairns snatched the lead at 42-40 on an Aaron Grabau triple, but McKee quickly replied with a long two as the teams proceeded to lock horns over six lead changes.

Coenraad gave the home team a massive lift at 52-50 when he converted a running three-pointer from a broken play to beat the shot-clock.

McKee immediately followed Coenraad's heroics with a triple in the corner to push Wollongong ahead 55-50 with ten minutes to play.
 
Both teams now head west for road games on Saturday, with the Taipans (3-5) up against the Adelaide 36ers and the Hawks (5-1) at Challenge stadium for a top of the table clash with the Perth Wildcats.

Wollongong Hawks 77 (McKee 19, Davidson 14, Tragardh 11)
Cairns Taipans 67 (Mills 12, Melzer 11, Grabau 10)
@ WIN Entertainment Centre, 28/10/2009. Crowd: 2,936.