An undermanned Ringwood Hawks pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in the club's history on Saturday night, recovering from a 16 point deficit to defeat the highly rated Eltham Wildcats in a BigV State championship men's clash at The Rings.

With three key players unavailable, it looked like a night where nothing was going to go the Hawks' way. Import Jacob Gibson was on the end of two early foul calls and headed to the bench after just four minutes with Eltham catching fire. The Hawks' foul issues grew and their frustration boiled over with a technical foul on the bench causing fans to erupt and all-but tear the roof off the stadium.

A rally late in the quarter kept the deficit to just four points at the first break, but things went from bad to worse in the second quarter and the Wildcats continued to build the lead. Shaun Clarke and Matt Fennell also found themselves in foul trouble and despite Mike McCahey (23 points) carrying the load, the Hawks trailed 52·39 at the half.

"The guys were incredibly frustrated in the change room at halftime, but it did give us all interesting opportunity" Hawks coach Ken Harrington said. "I said to them, 'if you can play through this and find a way to win, then that would be one of the most impressive performances ever'."

With a new focus, the Hawks took the challenge head on and quickly nibbled away at the Wildcats' lead. Gibson (14 points), despite playing with four fouls, found a way to open up the Hawks offence while Clarke (15 points and seven rebounds) and Fennell (15 points and eight rebounds) became dangerous. Nathan Truman(19 points) came off the bench midway through the third quarter and had an immediate impact, the powerfully built guard nailing two big threes while helping close down the Wildcats' offence. By three­quarter time, the Hawks had pulled to within six.

Truman nailed another three-pointer to start the last quarter before Max Sutton sank another long bomb and the Hawks had tied the game. From that point on, it was Hawks warrior Matt Snowball who controlled the game, created opportunities and did whatever the team needed. He finished the game with 12 points and 10 assists as the Hawks went on to win 101-94.

Meanwhile Ringwood's Big V state championship women edged to an 83-80 win over the Eltham Wildcats in the first game of the big double­header at The Rings on Saturday night.

Imports Tori Jarosz (25 points and 10 rebounds) and Sydney Coffey (19 points and seven rebounds) again got the job done while Emma Beddome (20 and 12) played a blinder.

The win took the Lady Hawks to 2-2, fourth behind unbeaten leaders Sunbury, Knox and Hume City.