An undermanned Illawarra Hawks ruined star forward Josh Childress' return to the court on Wednesday night, coming from behind to beat the Sydney Kings 96-90 in Wollongong.
Fifth-placed Illawarra's win was their second of the season over their big-city rivals and boosted their record to 5-6 ahead of Saturday night's home meeting with the Townsville Crocodiles.
Kirk Penney spearheaded the Hawks' victory with 24 points and was strongly supported by AJ Ogilvy (20) and Kevin Lisch (17).
Childress hadn't played since breaking his hand in a round-three home loss to Adelaide and missed 12 of his 17 shot attempts.
He was still productive, finishing with team highs of 20 points and 15 rebounds.
Marcus Thornton added 18 for the Kings and Tom Garlepp had 17.
Illawarra were playing without three of their top-10 regulars, forcing coach Rob Beveridge to elevate development players Tony Tolovae and Luke Jamieson to the bench.
The Hawks led 24-22 after the opening quarter, falling behind by nine midway through the second period before fighting back to lead 50-47 at halftime at WIN Entertainment Centre.
They were ahead 70-69 at three-quarter time and held the visitors at bay down the stretch.
The Kings remain at the foot of the NBL ladder with a 3-9 record and have a nine-day break before a round-nine road clash on Friday next week with the Cairns Taipans.
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