Hawks blow 36ers away to continue ladder climb

The Illawarra Hawks have continued their stark turnaround under coach Justin Tatum producing a commanding second half performance for the 91-84 New Year's Eve victory against the Adelaide 36ers.

Both teamsd were ran out in front of a season high crowd at WIN Entertainment Centre and it was a battle of the bigs in the early going.

Adelaide went into the break leading 41-40 thanks to a strong finish to the first half with Isaac Humphries dominating the battle of Australian centres with Sam Froling.

He had 20 points to the half for the Sixers but four minutes into the second half and the Hawks had blown the game wide open, and Ninnis had already used up two timeouts.

Illawarra went on a 23-4 scoring streak to start the second half which included three-point bombs to Tyler Harvey, Justin Robinson and Wani Swaka Lo Buluk.

The Hawks went on with the job from there to lead by as much as 18 points and win by seven to improve to 7-9 on the season, and 5-2 since Tatum took over.

It was another all-round team performance with Robinson producing 19 points and three assists.

Gary Clark added 14 points and 12 rebounds, Swaka Lo Buluk 12 points, Harvey 11 points, four rebounds and three assists, and Todd Blanchfield 10 points.

Tatum was pleased that the Hawks came out how they did to start the second half to blow the game open.

"I really wasn’t happy with the beginning of the first half, but we made adjustments at the start of the second," he said.

"In the first four or five minutes of the third quarter, that was pretty much the group showing what we've been trying to build towards."

Adelaide remains last at 5-13 with Humphries finishing with 26 points and nine rebounds. DJ Vasiljevic added 17 points and four boards, and Trey Kell III 16 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds for the first triple-double of the NBL season.

Ninnis was left frustrated that it was the slow second half start that cost his team.

"It's a repeat for us again and we just have these quarters where we get so bogged down offensively," he said.

"We then compound the problem at the other end and we talk about it a lot, and I was really pleased with the first half.

"We then came out in that third quarter and just couldn’t get anything done, I'm burning timeouts left, right and centre, and trying different line-ups. We just couldn’t get it done."

The Hawks will look to contunue their winning ways on Friday, January 5th against the South East Melbourne Phoenix at WIN Entertainment Centre.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 13

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 91 (Robinson 19, Clark 14, Swaka Lo Buluk 12)

ADELAIDE 36ERS 84 (Humphries 26, Vasiljevic 17, Kell III 16)

BOX SCORE