Mark Worthington led the Blaze to a 91-50 annihilation of Wollongong Hawks in Saturday night's spiteful NBL encounter on the Gold Coast.
The Boomer was bruising in defence and lethal in attack, finishing with 25 points, five rebounds and two steals with strong support from Adris Deleon and Adam Gibson (both 13 points).
Only recruit Ayinde Ubaka (12 points) managed double figures for Wollongong as the visitors struggled to find a way through the jamming Gold Coast defence.
Worthington found himself receiving verbal and physical attention from the Hawks, who became frustrated by the physicality and lop-sided scoreline.
Veteran Hawks coach Gordie McLeod received a rare technical foul for questioning referee Scott Beker, and said after the game the Blaze had "stepped it up a lot of notches" since their last meeting.
"That was like going through a tsunami," a stunned McLeod said.
"They manhandled us. There was no way we were going to be able to run and execute the way they were defending."
Worthington declared the Blaze were far from the finished product yet.
"The last two weeks have just been a glimpse at what we do (but) we still have our breakdowns and we're not happy about it," he said.
"If we were peaking right now then I would be worried. We've got the top two in our sights, they're the benchmark."
The Blaze ambushed the Hawks early with its rugged defence, knocking the visitors out of their offensive rhythm and leaping to a 17-7 lead.
The injection of Ubaka made some headway against the Gold Coast defence, the guard scoring eight points including a late triple to keep the Hawks within range, 26-17 down after 10 minutes.
Deleon found his range early in the second term, his two long-range jumpshots pushing the lead out to 13 before the technical foul on McLeod increased the advantage to 17.
Wollongong launched a mini fight-back with three consecutive baskets late in the term, but it was unable to build any pressure against the impregnable Gold Coast defence, going to the main break trailing 47-29.
The dam wall cracked wide open in the third quarter as the Gold Coast ran roughshod over the visitors to record its fourth consecutive win.
AAP
Tags: nbl, basketball, sport, broadbeach-4218, qld, wollongong-2500, nsw, australia First posted February 04, 2012 22:54:51