The Just Better Care Roller Hawks will take both confidence and lessons out of their Round 2 clash with the Darwin Salties after winning two out of three games to start the season 5-1. 
“Coming into the weekend, didn’t know what to expect, actually I knew exactly what to expect but I didn’t know if we’d win or not, that’s what I was thinking coming in and I was surprised we did really well in those first two games and we played really well today, it just didn’t go our way,” said Roller Hawks’ captain Brett Stibners.
“We can take away a lot from this weekend. When we played our best, they struggled to keep up with us and it looks really good and feels really good on court but when we don’t play our best it looks horrible so that’s the consistency thing that we want to get better.”
The Roller Hawks clinched game one in a double overtime nailbiter. Wollongong led down the stretch of both the fourth quarter and and overtime but saw Salties co-captain CJ McCarthy-Grogan sink match tying shots in both to push the game to another period.
Needing another three with six seconds to go in the second overtime, McCarthy-Grogan fell short a third time and the Roller Hawks held on to win 90-87.
The second game was equally competitive but Wollongong came away with a 74-64 win leaving the third game on Sunday for Darwin to try and avoid a clean sweep.
Wollongong looked like comfortable winners, leading by 15 midway through the third quarter but Darwin had other ideas and put on 16 straight points to take the lead and eventually the 79-73 win.
“The one-percenters was the difference in the three games all weekend. We didn't have Hannah this weekend and she makes a huge difference for us and hopefully when we have that strong line up we can get up the floor more and throw a few different things at them.”
The weekend saw Japanese import Reo Fujimoto play his first minutes of NWBL. The Roller Hawks managed to keep him contained in the first two games but he proved his class in game three, providing 23 points and 10 rebounds.
“They’ve got some really world class players, Reo’s been playing internationally for 20 years and he’s been killing us in the Australian team for that long so that’s what I was expecting him to do and he was a bit quiet this weekend but he’ll get better as they play more games together,” said Stibners.
“Everyone knows what Reo Fujimoto is all about and it’s just great to have him in the league. Not only great for our club but great for the league because it will only help all our Australian players prepare as best as they can leading into Paris but also for the younger generation coming into the league in setting a standard,” said McCarthy-Grogan.
Tristan Knowles led the Roller Hawks all weekend with 28.0 points, 10.6 rebounds and 13.3 assists per game while Stibners put up big numbers off the bench scoring 30 points in each of Wollongong’s two wins and 21 points in their loss on Sunday.
“I’m lucky we’ve got such a strong team across the board, I can just play my game and not worry about doing too much and I enjoy that but I’m exhausted now but at least it’s good for my fitness.”
The Roller Hawks travel to Adelaide on Friday for three games against the Adelaide Thunder who remain winless after two rounds. The Roller Hawks currently sit in second place on the NWBL ladder, one win behind the Perth Wheelcats.