Hawks go cold in second half as Wildcats pile on more Perth pain

The Result

Illawarra Hawks 69 - Perth Wildcats 83

The Story

The drought continues for the Hawks out west after the Wildcats ran away with a comfortable 83-69 victory despite trailing by a point at halftime at RAC Arena.

A Tyler Harvey floater opened the account for the Hawks on the road - with the scoring sensation dropping his first triple of the game not long after as the Hawks made a solid start against the defending champions.

Skipper AJ Ogilvy got in on the action with a nice little finish - before his big man partner in crime Sam Froling stopped American star John Mooney in his tracks on the other end of the court as the Hawks held a 9-7 lead at the halfway point of the opening quarter.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Not tonight John ?<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IllawarraProud?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#IllawarraProud</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FlyAsOne?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FlyAsOne</a> <a href="https://t.co/LxseUrI9f3">pic.twitter.com/LxseUrI9f3</a></p>&mdash; Illawarra Hawks Basketball (@illawarrahawks) <a href="https://twitter.com/illawarrahawks/status/1383026214944731141?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 16, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

A familiar face on the other side of the court started hot though - Todd Blanchfield bombing home 12 opening quarter points to remind Hawks fans once again what they're missing out on this season.

Deng Deng continued his stellar few weeks for Illawarra with eight first quarter points as the Wildcats took a 26-23 lead into the opening break.

Ogilvy continued to make his presence felt on both ends of the court - this tough piece of work helping the skipper to a well-deserved three-point play.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Bombs away ? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IllawarraProud?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#IllawarraProud</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FlyAsOne?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FlyAsOne</a> <a href="https://t.co/3t52FWdu0S">pic.twitter.com/3t52FWdu0S</a></p>&mdash; Illawarra Hawks Basketball (@illawarrahawks) <a href="https://twitter.com/illawarrahawks/status/1383031259891306499?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 16, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Harvey's hot hand didn't dissipate as he launched home a superb long ball to beat the shot clock, and Froling continued to rack up the stats, but 'Next Star' Justinian Jessup was quiet, the shooting guard only taking his first shot of the game after 18 minutes of action.

He wasn't the only one kept quiet, Perth superstar Bryce Cotton finding himself scoreless until the seven minute mark of the second quarter.

Both teams trading blows in the lead-up to halftime, before a brilliant pass from Ogilvy found Deng Adel wide open under the hoop to give Illawarra a 43-42 lead at the main break. 

The third quarter saw both Jessup and Cotton sink their first field goals of the game - funnily within 20 seconds of each other - as both stars looked to get going.

Justin Simon continued to do a phenomenal job on Cotton though, holding him to 4/15 shooting while scoring six points of his own up to three quarter time.

The Wildcats finishing the third term on a 10-0 run to take all the momentum and a 60-52 lead into the final break.

They say you can't keep a good man down, and sadly for the Hawks, just as their offence began drying up, Cotton found his stroke. The MVP-frontrunner knocking down clutch shot after shot to get loose and finish the game with 18-points.

The Wildcats really turning the defensive screws after halftime and managing to hold the Hawks to a meagre 26-points in the second half, as they continued the Hawks rough results in WA. Perth running awa with a 83-69 win.

The Stats

The Hawks shot the ball better from the field overall but could not buy a bucket from deep tonight after the early exchanges. The Hawks finishing the game with 4/22 at a measly 18% compared to the Wildcats 9/28 at 32%.

Coach Goorjian should be happy with the improved free throw rate 13/16 at 81% after his side has struggled mightily from the line this season.

The Wildcats absolutely killed the visitors on the boards - with Perth pulling down 50 rebounds to 37 including a whopping 20 offensive rebounds. This led to an advantage in second chance points as well (15-10).

The Wildcats capitalised on their ability to take better care of the ball as well, dropping in 15 points of turnovers compared to Illawarra's six.

The Hawks continue to pile up the steals and blocks though, registering six each across the contest.

The Fallout

"Through the whole night we didn't get any easy baskets, nothing off the offensive glass, nothing in transition, when the game mattered at three quarter time we'd been to the foul line like seven times. we didn't get to the free throw line so we didn't get any easy baskets," coach Brian Goorjian said.

"They're deep and they're just gonna wear you out and work at Tyler [Harvey], work at Justinian [Jessup] and I'm gonna have to dig deep into the bench and I just thought late in the third quarter it was a one point game, like Adelaide I went in there [bench] and we ended up eight down. And then you get into the fourth quarter and you're here, we had Bryce [Cotton] pretty much under contorl, but the fourth quarter is always pretty difficult here," Goorjian said

"That's what we've kind of battled with before in the past [late game fadeouts], in the SE Melbourne game we came back out and we came back from 12 down in that fourth quarter, so I think that's been a problem for us, we got on top of it in those last two games and then we let it slip a little again tonight" Sam Froling said.

"I thought tonight we had plenty of time to recover, we came over here, I don't think fatigue or schedule had anything to do with tonight. You see what you gotta do to win here, and there's a lot of obstacles, a lot of obstacles, we're just not where you need to be to win on this court, we're not there yet. We had an opportunity, I thought we had an opportunity in the last game, you gotta finish plays, a real important aspect both ways I look at when you're playing here, you gotta get some easy baskets, you gotta get to the foul line, you gotta get some layups in transition, you gotta get some offensive rebounds, we're just a zero out of ten there," Goorjian said.

"This is a new team and we're marching to a different beat and we're trying to buld something and this is the epic, this is the team, this is the crowd, this is the place and tonight no excuses, we were ready...we lick our wounda and we got another tough one coming up. You gotta take a deep breath cuz I thought in the middle of the third we were right where we wanted to be and we hadn't got hot. we hadn't got Tyler going, we hadn't got Justinian going, I thought 'god man we're right where we wanna be', but again just not there yet" Goorjisan said.

The Road Ahead

Round 14 – Sunday 18 April at 3pm AEST v Melbourne United @ John Cain Arena