The Just Better Care Roller Hawks have moved to the top of the NWBL ladder with three comprehensive wins over the Adelaide Thunder.

The inexperienced Thunder, back in national league for the first time in 5 years weren’t spared by a team that’s been at its peak during that time with the Roller Hawks winning by an average margin of 82.6 points including a 100 point demolition on Saturday night.

 

It started on Saturday morning when Shawn Russell scored 61 points and broke Brett Stibners’ record for most points in a game by a Roller Hawk (59) on the way to a 102-16 win.

 

Luke Pople backed up Russell with a triple double with 19 points, 14 rebounds and 16 assists.

 

“I called ‘Stick’ after the game and asked what was your record again and he said ‘What did you do?’ and basically hung up,” said Russell.

 

But records are made to be broken and Tristan Knowles wasn’t interested in letting his Australian teammate hold it for long.

Knowles took a while to warm up from long range in Saturday night’s second game but on the back of the Wollongong’s stifling defence, missed just one shot from inside the arc and went 34 from 44 overall to amass 74 points in a 115-15 rout of the Thunder.

 

Luke Pople backed up his earlier triple double with a quadruple double.

 

“Without captain Stibners here we saw the opportunity to maybe have a crack at his scoring title which has been in place for a pretty long period of time so Huss was successful in taking that on Saturday morning and I thought I’d have a go at it last (Saturday) night,” said Knowles.

 

“Stick had it for five years. I had it for four hours” added Russell.

 

But in a day full of impressive offensive performances it was defense that was also a heavy focus for the Roller Hawks.

 

“We saw last week there were a few elements of our quarter court defensive game that needed a bit of polish and a weekend like this despite Adelaide being a development side really allowed us go focus on that defensive end and to keep them to under 20 points three games in a row was one thing that we wanted to get out of this weekend,” said Knowles.

It was a more even handed affair on Sunday but the Roller Hawks were still too strong, and won 82-20. The visitors had four scorers in double figures and coach Brendan Dowler opted to rest his Australian players in the second half as they prepare for games in Melbourne with the Rollers and Gliders.

 

Knowles, Russell, Pople and Hannah Dodd fly to Melbourne to link up with the Australian Rollers and Gliders as part of Ballin 24, a basketball festival bringing the Boomers, Opals, Rollers, Gliders and 3x3 teams together. 

 

The Rollers and Gliders will both play friendlies against Japan with the final 12 Rollers going to Paris set to be announced on Friday.