Hawks drop home final to Wildcats - series heads to Game Three decider

The Result

Illawarra Hawks 71 - Perth Wildcats 79

The Story

The Illawarra Hawks couldn't muster the same magic in Game Two of their semi-final series with the Perth Wildcats in Wollongong on Saturday night, going down 79-71 in front of a heaving WIN Entertainment Centre crowd of over 5200.

The Hawks got off to an unusual start - with skipper AJ Ogilvy opening the scoring on a fast break layup courtesy of Tyler Harvey.

The Hawks playing suffocating defence from the opening tip, with the home side picking up four swipes in the opening quarter as Perth struggled to get into any offensive rhythm.

One man who knows all about rhythm is Harvey, and after a less than stellar performance in Game One in Perth, it didn't take long for the MVP candidate to find his stroke again.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">He's baaaaaack <a href="https://twitter.com/YoungTRaaw?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@YoungTRaaw</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IllawarraProud?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#IllawarraProud</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FlyAsOne?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FlyAsOne</a> <a href="https://t.co/4r0hdzNeOf">pic.twitter.com/4r0hdzNeOf</a></p>— Illawarra Hawks Basketball - x (@illawarrahawks) <a href="https://twitter.com/illawarrahawks/status/1403620497439354886?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 12, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Harvey and back court mate Justinian Jessup combining for nine of the Hawks 11 opening quarter points as the Wildcats held a slender 16-13 lead at the first break.

The second quarter saw more of the same from the opener - stingy defence, tough shots not falling and a sense of chipiness developing more and more as the game wore on.

Both Isaac White and Deng Deng earned some minutes and repaid the faith with a bucket each, before Justin Simon found himself on the end of some slick ball movement to finish this very solid play.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Up, under and in baby <a href="https://twitter.com/simon_Says_so?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@simon_Says_so</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IllawarraProud?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#IllawarraProud</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FlyAsOne?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FlyAsOne</a> <a href="https://t.co/BCEIHGVkAP">pic.twitter.com/BCEIHGVkAP</a></p>— Illawarra Hawks Basketball - x (@illawarrahawks) <a href="https://twitter.com/illawarrahawks/status/1403627221143617536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 12, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Hawks hot hand helping them take the lead late in the second term after Deng Deng stroked one home from beyond the arc, before Simon pulled down a huge offensive board and gave it to Harvey to kncok down another one.

The Hawks taking a slender 31-28 lead into the main break.

The third quarter was a more free-flowing affair as both sides found some offensive efficiency, but the Wildcats got it done without the services of Mitch Norton who didn't return from a first half hip issue.

Harvey kept the scorers busy for the Hawks, while on the other end it was John Mooney, Luke Travers and Will Magnay making shots.

The Wildcats temporarily took the lead on the back of some hot shooting from Clint Steindl, before Deng Deng dropped this hammer to regain the Hawks advantage.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Deeeeeng that's a nice stroke <a href="https://twitter.com/DengDeng19?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DengDeng19</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IllawarraProud?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#IllawarraProud</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FlyAsOne?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FlyAsOne</a> <a href="https://t.co/q2Mz4n8jVo">pic.twitter.com/q2Mz4n8jVo</a></p>— Illawarra Hawks Basketball - x (@illawarrahawks) <a href="https://twitter.com/illawarrahawks/status/1403637491492474883?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 12, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Wildcats really finding their offensie mojo in the third, scoring 29 points to take a 58-50 lead going into the final frame.

A mini-Wildcats run at the start of the fourth term stretched the lead to double figures for the first time all night - before the Hawks made their first trip to the foul line after 36 minutes of action to help trim the margin.

But it was the Wildcats who did everything right down the strectch - the defending champions holding off any late surges from Illawarra to take Game Two in style - and force a series-deciding Game Three back in Perth.

The Stats

The Hawks actually outshot the Wildcats across all categories except free-throws tonight, with the latter stat column grossly favouring the visitors. The Wildcats shot 21 foul shots, while the Hawks only went to the line four times.

Perth killed Illawarra on the boards, winning the battle of the glass to the tune of 48-35. It resulted in a 16-9 advantage to Perth in second chance points, with youngster Luke Travers having 10 rebounds in total, five of them offensive.

The Hawks did as they do on the defensive end, winning the steals column (10-3) and having more blocks (6-1) while also taking better care of the ball (9-14 turnovers).

The Perth bench outscored the Hawks 28-22, with Clint Steindl pacing both second-units with 12 points.

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The Fallout

"Over the course of time they just wore us down and all game long we struggled to score offensively, even when we were ahead at halftime. The scoring was a struggle and we did a great job holding them down. But being able to do that for forty minutes was just too much. The game we won, we got some easy baskets and we won the rebounding count," Hawks coach Brian Goorjian said.

"When you play finals basketball...the game's about easy baskets and easy baskets are baskets in transitions, putbacks on offensive rebounds, they killed us there, and then the third one, and a very, very important one is the foul line. And I thought they were very physical, very tough and I've been coaching for close to thirty years, we didn't go to the foul line, we didn't shoot a free throw until four minutes left in the game on our home court, I've never seen or been a part of anything like that," Goorjian said.

"Really feel let down that we couldn't deliver [a win for the home crowd] but hopefully we can get another one here. Really proud and really thank the community for coming out and supporting the team tonight. We definitely felt them there, it definitely wasn't from lack of trying tonight. Maybe the strategy on my part, some adjustments need to be made but the team is there, it's giving it it's all, we've got the community behind it and tonight it was the pinnacle, it was great," Goorjian said.

"You gotta look forwad to Monday night now. this is it. An exciting game in a semi final series, if you can't get up for this one then you don't have a heart in your chest. Obviously the biggest thing we need to address is our rebounding, taking care of those swoopers and then keeping guys like [Will] Magnay and [John] Mooney, particularly [Luke] Travers, he's good at swopping in, just keeping them off the glass," Hawks wing Tim Coenraad said.

"That's a team that knows how to win, they've been in this a while. Now I don't think we quite grasp the magnitude of the situaton we're in, that's all this is, it's a moment in time that we just didn't take advantage of as a group. Now we have to get back up for another one, we'll feel sorry for ourselves later on, we gotta prepare and get ourselves mentally ready and rest, and get ready for this battle that's gonna be a war in Perth. And we didn't want to go back there but now we have to, so it's up to us to put our foot down," Coenraad said.

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The Road Ahead

The Hawks and Wildcats squads will both jump on a plane on Sunday and head back to Perth for Game Three of their semi-final series at RAC Arena.

Game Three will take place on Monday 14 June at 9:30pm EST - and with the series tied at 1-1, the winner of Game Three will advance to the 2021 NBL Grand Final series.