South Spotlight | Wildcats just keep Hawks winless

Featured image: Shane Panther | @shanejpg.sport

The Eltham Wildcats did lead most of the night but could never shake fully the winless Ringwood Hawks before ending up prevailing 83-79 in Thursday night NBL1 South by scoring the last five points.

The Hawks are in the middle of playing three homes across five nights this week as they hosted the Wildcats at Norwood Secondary College on Thursday night.

Ringwood did lose at the same venue to the Nunawading Spectres back on Tuesday night by 21 points with Eltham arriving coming off a first up win to the Diamond Valley Eagles and then a loss to Keilor Thunder to start 2026.

It was a tight battle through most of the evening and after Eltham led by 10 early in the fourth quarter, Ringwood fired back and grabbed the lead thanks to a three-pointer to Tom Carroll inside the last two minutes.

That would be their last score with the Wildcats sealing the win at the foul line from there to improve to 2-1 on the season with the Hawks now slipping to 0-4.

Eltham ended up having five players score in double-figures in the win with Harry Hornery leading the way with 18 points, three rebounds and three assists with 6/7 free-throw shooting.

TJ Weeks added 16 points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals, Zak Cunningham 15 points, eight boards, four assists and two blocks, and Leonardo Colimerio 11 points and seven rebounds.

Mitch McCarron also had 10 points, four rebounds and four assists with Sam Whelan scoring eight points and Sam Short providing five points, seven assists and four rebounds.

Ringwood threw everything at avoiding a 0-4 start to the season including Tom Carroll putting them in front in the final two minutes on his way to 15 points, nine rebounds and four assists with 4/8 three-point shooting.

Harry Sealey ended up top-scoring for the Hawks with 24 points and five assists with 10/19 field goal shooting while Chris Brandon delivered 13 points, 16 boards, three steals, two assists and two blocked shots.

Mitch Dielemans also had seven points and five assists, and Lawson Eales six points and eight rebounds.

The Hawks were back at home and chasing that elusive first win of the season and they did well going inside in the first quarter with 14 points in the paint to be leading quarter-time 23-20.

Chris Brandon had six points, five rebounds and two steals already and that was despite the 11 free-throw attempts from Eltham to zero from the home team.

It took until just before half-time for Ringwood to take their lone free-throw of the half when Lawson Eales completed a three-point play with Eltham going 8/15 at the line.

Missing those seven free throws did deny them a larger lead and the Wildcats were only clinging to the 36-35 advantage heading into half-time with Harry Hornery having 13 points by the break for the leaders.

It remained a tight battle through the third quarter and even when Eltham opened up a nine-point lead, Ringwood were able to hit back and by three quarter-time it was the Wildcats just holding on to the two-point edge.

Again just when Eltham threatened to run away with the game with the 10-point lead when Sam Whelan hit a three-pointer with 6:30 remaining in the contest, the Hawks responded and set up a thrilling finish.

By the time Tom Carroll hit a huge three ball, Ringwood were back within with just under four minutes to play and he hit another a couple of minutes later to give Ringwood the lead.

The first win of the season was suddenly right on the cards but Eltham managed the next five points in response including two clutch free throws from Horney with 18 seconds to go which ultimately was enough for the Wildcats to secure the four-point win.

The Hawks will wrap up their run of three home games in five days this week on Saturday against the Northern Force while the Wildcats will remain on the road to the Dandenong Rangers on Sunday.

NBL1 SOUTH 2026 SEASON | MENTAL HEALTH ROUND

RINGWOOD HAWKS 79 (Sealey 24, Carroll 15, Brandon 13)

ELTHAM WILDCATS 83 (Hornery 18, Weeks 16, Cunningham 15)