The final score lines were comfortable but the Just Better Care Roller Hawks had to work for their wins against the Red Dust Heelers to remain in the hunt for a top two finish. 
Each game started slowly for both teams as Red Dust led the Roller Hawks midway through the first quarter of all three contests before the home side took control through their high pointers Tristan Knowles and Shawn Russell and finished winners 67-33, 72-43 and 58-42.
“We wanted to play our game, recognising that each team has a different look to it so that we need to concentrate on the things we need to concentrate on. We didn’t change our game plan but it did allow us to focus on certain things like defensive structures especially,” said Roller Hawks coach Brendan Dowler.
Knowles averaged 20.7 points and 12 assists per game while Russell had 18.7 points and 10.3 rebounds per game.
The presence of Italian import Sabri Bedzeti for Red Dust gave Knowles, Russell and company plenty to contend with over the three games.
“Bedzeti is awesome,” said Shawn Russell. “He’s a world class player that’s for sure. His mobility in the chair and the way he moves is elite.”
“And it’s good, leading into the finals we need those games where we can test our line up and just make sure we’re all on the same page.”
“This is only the third weekend we’ve had our starting line-up all available to play so it was a good chance to get some cobwebs out.”
The returns of Hannah Dodd and Nick Taylor were a much needed boost after both missed Round 4 against Perth.
“When you’ve got shorter rotations you look at the players going up and down the court,” said Dowler.
“You see the sweat pouring off them and the look on their face as they come into timeouts, it’s really hard to try and squeeze a bit more out of players when they’ve played a lot of minutes and you can see they’re really tired whereas when you’ve got these rotations we can cycle some people through."
Dodd’s basketball IQ and shooting touch gives the Roller Hawks a valuable point of difference.
“Without Hannah it’s hard to get through our rotations and still be competitive, it gives everyone a break and everyone’s still relatively fresh come the third game of the weekend,” said Russell.
“I think Hannah did an amazing job this weekend, just the way she reads the game is unreal. It’s a pleasure to play with her, it makes my life a lot easier.
The Roller Hawks hit the road in the final regular season round to play Southern Districts Spartans in Brisbane on August 3rd and 4th.
Wollongong currently sit in third on the ladder behind Perth and Darwin but with Perth finishing the season with a bye, both Darwin and Wollongong will look to overtake Perth in the final round to finish in the top two ahead of the Finals.
The WBA Finals for men and women will be held at Shellharbour on August 10th & 11th.