The Australian National Basketball League's Wollongong Hawks have celebrated veteran Glen Saville's 500th game in style and in the process kept the Melbourne Tigers winless scoring a thrilling 86-82 victory in Melbourne.
The Tigers looked on track to open their account in the new season with a 12-point lead at halftime but the Hawks burst to life in the third quarter with 34 points o Melbourne's 13 to turn the game on its head.
Milestone man Saville hit nine third-quarter points while Oscar Forman added 10 of his own.
From that point on the Tigers fought hard but couldn't recover.
Saville, who became just the 10th player in NBL history to reach the 500-game mark, had a superb all-round match with 15 points, seven rebounds, 10 assists and four steals.
The win means Wollongong improve to 4-1 for the new season, while the loss was Melbourne's fourth straight.
