Wollongong's back end bogey reared its head again as the National Basketball League leader produced another awful shooting performance in its 86-76 loss to Sydney at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.

All four of Wollongong's losses this season have come on the back end of a two game round and the Hawks produced an inept shooting display coming off last night's impressive home win over New Zealand when it shot 57 per cent from the field.

Understrength Sydney, still without guards C J Bruton and Luke Kendall, led for most of the match but it did surrender the advantage on three occasions in the third quarter.

Captain Jason Smith was the offensive star for the Kings, scoring 29 points.

The offensively challenged Hawks shot a miserable 33 per cent from the field despite having six double figures scorers to Sydney's five.

Sydney led 20-14 at quarter-time with American forward Adam Ballinger just about the only Hawk capable of making a bucket.

Wollongong's other four starters shot a combined one from 25 in the first half which ended with the Kings holding a 40-31 advantage.

Wollongong finally found its scoring touch in the third quarter, which it won 28-18 to lead 59-58 heading into the final term.

However, Smith regained the lead for Sydney with a three-pointer at the start of the fourth quarter and the teams remained in front for the rest of the evening.

Smith hit 10 out of 20 field goal attempts and added nine rebounds, five assists, two steals and one block.

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