The recent form of the Ringwood Hawks men’s team had been encouraging of late but on Saturday night the Hawks had a none too subtle reminder of what a true Championship calibre team is like. The Hawks were dominated from tip off to final buzzer by a hungry Sandringham Sabres team and were defeated to the tune of 125 to 78 at Maroondah Stadium.

“They are a great team but we did not even challenge them tonight,” angry Hawks Coach Ken Harrington said. “We were simply not aggressive enough and did not buckle down when things got tough. We ignored our game plan completely and we simply need to become more physical if we are going to succeed.”

The Hawks Coach saw the writing on the wall early as his team basically lost the game in the first quarter when they let the Sabres explode out of the gate to build a 28 to 6 early advantage. The Hawks were tentative while the Sabres through Marcus Timmons, Brett Wheeler and Erik Wickstrom were on fire offensively and relentless on any Hawks mistake.

Hawks shooting guard Willie Weimer was one of the only real shining lights with 24 points, including 6 from 9 from the three point line, while his back court partner Damien Smith worked hard for 18 points.

Jason Eversteyn and Luke McMillan were surprisingly quiet and struggled to get anything going at the offensive end. With only 17 points between the 2 Hawks bigs, too much was left to do from the perimeter. The physical dominance of the Sabres tall timber enabled them to push the Hawks players out of their comfort zones, causing the Hawks to cough up 25 turnovers for the game.

With other results going their way, the Hawks are still in with a chance at securing the 5th and final play off spot with 6 games remaining. Currently sitting in 7th, the Hawks are only 1 game out of the five but must at least win one of their 2 games next week to stay alive.

The Hawks will travel to Mill Park on Saturday night and face the third placed Melbourne Tigers and then have to back up on Sunday at Waverley in a season defining match up. A loss at Waverley will all but end the Hawks finals aspirations for season 2006.

Article courtesy of www.ringwood.basketball.net.au