The Townsville Crocodiles have crushed the Adelaide 36ers 102-87 at the Townsville Entertainment and Convention Centre on Wednesday night.
Corey Williams (19 points), Russell Hinder (19) and Stephen Hoare (14) starred for the Crocodiles while Matthew Burston (19), Darren Ng (15) and Nathan Herbert (14) threatened for the 36ers.
The home side dominated from the start and extended the margin to 23 points in the third-quarter before bringing on its development players allowing the visitors to make the scoreline respectful.
The result kept the Crocodiles' unlikely chance of finishing the season on top of the ladder alive but anchored the 36ers to the bottom for a disappointing season.
Townsville opened with a bag of tricks with Rolan Roberts bouncing the ball through his legs to a rampaging Hinder to slam dunk.
Hinder topped it off with another piece of brilliance, launching a long three-pointer from down the middle to take a 9-5 lead.
Adelaide kept it simple with Cortez Groves letting loose from downtown for a three before Adam Ballinger followed suit.
Ballinger continued to threaten but found himself in foul trouble with two against his name and was benched with the side behind 31-27 at quarter-time.
The Crocodiles maintained their momentum with Williams finding his feet with unstoppable drives to the basket.
Hinder was again the danger man, sinking a three-pointer from out wide to make the visitors pay for leaving him unmarked.
The 36ers left it to Herbert to find the net from long range with their big men in deeper foul trouble trying to contain the home side.
Ng hit a three-pointer on the buzzer to keep his side in touch but still behind 51-43 at half-time.
Townsville refused to let anything stop it.
Williams cleaned up for a lay-up and Crawford later finished off with a clinical three-pointer to extend the margin to almost 20 points.
Adelaide was staring down the barrel of an embarrassing defeat with Matthew Burston's six points the most for the quarter from the visitors.
Ng was left with the two free-throws after the buzzer but could only sink one as the 36ers were left trailing 82-61 at three-quarter time.
The Crocodiles were cruising and even gave their development player Todd Blanchfield minutes and he did not disappoint with a breakaway slam dunk on his first touch.
Roberts fouled out after a physical and determined effort on the boards both on offence and defence.
Adelaide was playing to make the scoreline respectful and wasn't helped when Groves fouled out after sloppy defence.
Burston picked up some late baskets against a second-string outfit but it was too little too late.
Townsville Crocodiles 102 (Hinder 19, Williams 19, Hoare 14)
Adelaide 36ers 87 (Burston 19, Ng 15, Herbert 14)
@ Townsville Entertainment & Convention Centre 10/02/10, Attendance: 3,443
