Saturday night’s NBL1 game between the Ringwood Hawks and the Eltham Wildcats was tabbed by the League Manager Dean Anglin as the game of the week. A sold out crowd, two overtimes and highlight after highlight, proved Anglin a prophet as the game was simply spectacular.

This was game that the Wildcats had circled on their calendar after the Hawks had defeated them in three games in last year’s Big V Grand Final and early on it looked like the Hawks were going to be blown off the court. Both Hawks imports Jacob Gibson and Joey Miller headed to the bench with foul trouble and the Hawks were also without Matt Snow who was unavailable.

Gibson (32 points) was on fire early and single handedly kept the Hawks in the game, but by half time the home team trailed by 9 points.

The third quarter has been a good quarter for the Hawks this season and Matt Fennell (21 points and 14 rebounds) and Trevor Latham (20 points and 8 rebounds) made sure this week was no exception. The Hawks big men dragged their team right back in to the game and after three quarters it was the Hawks by a point.

(Pic by Erin Hynson)

After a relatively quiet first three quarters, the Hawks looked to Joey Miller (14 points and 14 assists) to take over the game and he didn’t let them down. Miller created great shots for his teammates, but still the Hawks needed a little more of his magic to keep the Hawks alive.

After the game was sent to overtime the Hawks again found themselves in dire trouble. With 5 seconds left in the first overtime the Hawks were down 2 and Eltham had possession from the side. Miller swiped the inbound pass from Eltham guard Adam Doyle and found Gibson who made a difficult floating layup. This game was game was going to need another overtime to sort out.

This game was full of twists and turns, but Miller, Gibson, Fennell, Nathan Truman and Trevor Latham managed to stay calm enough to close out the most improbable win. The Hawks made all the big shots in the second overtime and shut the game down from the foul line.

“One of the best regular season wins we have had in a long time.” Hawks veteran Matt Fennell said.

“There were times in this game where I think nobody believed we could win, but we just stayed after it.”

The win takes the Hawks to a 2 win and 2 loss record so far with a big double header challenge next weekend. On Saturday night at the Rings the Hawks host the Hobart Huskies and then on Sunday travel to Diamond Valley to battle the Eagles.

Ringwood 110 (Gibson 32, Fennell 21, Latham 20, Sturt 14, Miller 14, Truman 6, Clarke 5) Defeated Eltham Wildcats 106 (Doyle 32) at the Rings in Ringwood.

Click here to watch a replay of the double overtime thriller and here to watch the earlier women's game.