South Spotlight | Lawton helps Hawks to Friday thriller

Featured image: Andrew Scherer / DLNQNT PHOTOGRAPHY

Jonathan Lawton hit seven of the last nine points for the Ringwood Hawks to lead his team to the thrilling 97-95 road NBL1 South win on Friday night against the Mount Gambier Pioneers to make it consecutive wins.

The two teams came into the match up at Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre on identical 5-7 records and trying to move into a top 10 position heightening the stakes for the lone Friday night NBL1 South affair.

And after an early 11-point lead the way of Mount Gambier, no more than six points again separated the two teams the rest of the night in a tight and tense affair.

In the end, with seven seconds left Lawton hit two clutch free throws for Ringwood having returned to the floor after earlier hurting an ankle, and then it was just a rushed shot at the death from Alex Mudronja and the Hawks on for the two-point road win.

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The victory improves Ringwood to a 6-7 record on the season with Mount Gambier now 5-8 and now having lost three in-a-row.

The Pioneers ended up shooting 59 per cent from the field to just 48 from Ringwood, but the Hawks had an extra 10 free-throw attempts while they forced the Pioneers into 16 turnovers and had just seven themselves.

Jonathan Lawton shook off rolling his ankle to return and have a big say in the win for Ringwood and finishing the night with 18 points and three assists with 6/6 free-throw shooting.

Uche Dibiamaka ended up top scoring on his way to 23 points, four rebounds and four assists with 3/5 three-point shooting while Chris Bandon added 19 points and five boards on 8/12 field goal shooting.

Junior Garbrah also had 11 points and two steals, Harry Sealey 11 points, four boards and four assists, and Lawson Eales six points, four rebounds and two steals.

Alex Mudronja battled valiantly and had a chance to get the game to overtime at the buzzer for Mount Gambier and finished with 20 points, two rebound and two assists on 9/14 field goal shooting.

Lucas Gordon also had a huge performance with 17 points, 22 rebounds and five assists, Collin Moore 18 points, eight assists and six rebounds, and Titus Robinson 15 points, five boards, three assists and two blocked shots.

It was a high octane opening from both teams as they combined for 62 points with Ringwood going into quarter-time with the 34-28 advantage on the back of shooting 4/6 from behind the arc and 6/6 from the free-throw line with Chris Brandon up to 10 points.

Mount Gambier were right in the contest too while shooting 13/18 themselves from the floor with Titus Robinson scoring nine points while the home team only managed one free-throw and had four turnovers in the first term.

It was another 50 points combined in the second term and with Mount Gambier scoring 26 of those, the Ringwood lead was back to just 58-54 by half-time even though Uche Dibiamaka and Brandon had 17 points apiece heading into the break.

Mount Gambier were still shooting at a scorching 71 per cent by half-time but they still had just five free-throw attempts to 12, and eight turnovers to two.

The scoring dried up for both teams in the third quarter with just the combined 27 points with Mount Gambier scoring 15 of those to cut the lead of Ringwood to just 70-69 by three quarter-time.

That set the stage for a big finish with the lead continuing the exchange hands and after scores were level again at 88-88 with 2:30 play, Jonathan Lawton shook off rolling his ankle to hit a three only for Robinson to respond for Mount Gambier.

The teams continued to trade bucket for bucket and Lawton's two free throws were answered by a flush to Collin Moore with scores still level with 17 seconds to go.

Ringwood opted to advance the ball which would always give Mount Gambier another shot either and the Hawks did take the lead when Lawton was fouled where he made both for the Hawks.

There was still seven seconds left for Mount Gambier out of a timeout but Alex Mudronja was only able to get off a tough contested jumper which hit the side of the backboard and the Hawks held on for the two-point road win to make it back-to-back victories.

The Pioneers now don't play again until hosting the Northern Force on Friday June 12 while Ringwood are in action the following night on the road to the Knox Raiders.

NBL1 SOUTH 2026 SEASON | HERITAGE ROUND

MOUNT GAMBIER PIONEERS 95 (Mudronja 20, Moore 18, Gordon 17)

RINGWOOD HAWKS 97 (Dibiamaka 23, Brandon 19, Lawton 18)