Hawks Go Down in Perth

The Illawarra Hawks go down to Perth Wildcats 77-71 in their first away game of the NBL23 season.

The Hawks led the contest on Saturday night for most of the evening including by as much as 11 points and again by five with four minutes to play.

The Hawks have lost import guard Justin Robinson, but fellow import George King hit the floor early with three rapid-fire bombs and went on to finish with 25 points for the game with 5/8 shooting from downtown.

Sam Froling had his moments inside too for 14 points and eight rebounds with Dent adding 11 points.

Mitch Norton gave Perth a good start with the first four points against his old team with the Hawks struggling to find a scoring option in the opening minutes – until George King hit the floor.

He knocked down three three-point bombs in the matter of a minute and that got Illawarra going. Lachie Dent then joined in the fun and hit two of his own from downtown, and by quarter-time the visitors were on top 25-23.

The Hawks continued to shoot well and opened up a double-figure advantage just before half-time while going into the break shooting 57 per cent as a team and hitting 6/10 from deep.

The Hawks also did well to limit Bryce Cotton to six points on 2/6 shooting with he and Tyler Harvey cancelling one another out. 

Harvey had just five points on 2/6 but he had plenty of help including King and Dent hitting five threes for a combined 25 points with the Hawks up 49-41 at the break.

The scoring dried up significantly in the third quarter but the 'Cats did work back into the contest and were back within two after a dunk from Luke Travers over the top of King.

The Hawks sharpshooter responded with his fourth three of the game to keep Illawarra on top by five at three quarter-time.

Brady Manek then finished inside to stretch the lead with Jacob Jackomas forced to call for time after eight straight Wildcats points. The Hawks steadied out of the timeout to go on a 9-1 run to reclaim a five-point lead, but then Cotton kept Perth close with a three-pointer.

King's hot hand continued, though, to keep the Hawks within three but Cotton was to ice the Perth win with two free-throws.

The Hawks don't play again until next Saturday away to the Adelaide 36ers.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 2

PERTH WILDCATS 77 (Travers 14, Norton 14, Cotton 13)

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 71 (King 25, Froling 14, Dent 11) 

BOX SCORE