A committed Wollongong Hawks outfit has scored a convincing 104-85 victory over Cairns in their NBL match at The Sandpit in Wollongong.

The Hawks erased all memories of their slow start to the season as they moved their record to 6-4.

They finished with five players in double figures, led by another superb display from captain Glen Saville.

Saville was unstoppable at all ends of the court, finishing with 21 points on 7 of 11 shooting, to go with 12 rebounds and seven assist.

All expectations of an even contest were met in the opening quarter as the lead changed seven times and the scores level on three occasions.

Riding on the back of a superb 10 point, six rebound effort from Saville, it was the Hawks who claimed the first quarter, but only just at 25-24.

As the Hawks steadily built on their lead in the second quarter they threatened to take full control as they pushed out to an 11-point lead, but their offence stopped dead as the quarter wound down.

Taking advantage Cairns charged back, holding Wollongong to just two points in the last four minutes, and finishing on a 15-5 run to trail 51-50 at halftime.

The Taipans' fightback continued in the third when they took the lead for the first time since the first quarter with under five minutes to go, but it was Wollongong who found the motivation.

The Hawks outscored Cairns 14-5 in the remaining four minutes of the third, giving themselves a 75-67 advantage to build on.

In the last stanza the traffic was all one way with the Hawks getting out to a 19-point margin as they won the final turn 29-18.

Cortez Groves equalled Saville's points production for Wollongong in his return after missing a week with a hamstring injury, grabbing 21 points to go with his four assists and four rebounds.

In a tremendous all-round display the Hawks also put Matt Campbell (17), Ben Castle (11) and Adam Ballinger (10) on the score sheet in double figures, as they finished shooting 52 per cent for the night.

Martin Cattalini was dangerous for the Taipans, finishing as the game high scorer with 25, but his only real support on the night came from Aaron Grabau's 17.

"Successful teams have role players, and in this team each players plays their role and plays to their strengths," Wollongong coach Brendan Joyce said.

"We don't need five superstars on the bench, and we wouldn't be 6-4 if they weren't playing those roles, even if they haven't been getting the credit.

"We gave up a huge opportunity now to go up against the Razorbacks and possibly move into a top four position, which would be a surprise to everybody."

Cairns coach Alan Black said his team could not recover from scoring only 35 points in the second half.

"You're not going to win many ball games doing that," Black said.

"We only had two assists in the second half, which is very unlike us, so I was very disappointed in that.

"It's obviously a game of momentum, and once they wrested it from us we really struggled to get it back".

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