Hawks Go Down to Kings in Round 1 Opener

The Illawarra Hawks got a surprise 47 points from Lachie Dent, George King and Wani Swaka Lo Buluk, but the Sydney Kings prevailed 106-97.

While Dent had a remarkable first five minutes of the fourth quarter in his career-best NBL performance to threaten to lead the Hawks to victory, Walton wouldn’t let the Kings go down.

With the help of former Hawk Justin Simon in his Kings debut and then last season's championship stars Xavier Cooks and DJ Vasiljevic, Sydney scored the game's last eight points to win by nine at WIN Entertainment Centre on Saturday night.

The contrasting nights of Simon and Swaka Lo Buluk was fascinating to watch too, as they played their old teams for the first time.

Swaka Lo Buluk was a pivotal member of Sydney's championship last season as their starting three man and defensive menace, but he was looking to show more of offensive arsenal by joining the Hawks.

Simon was Best Defensive Player with the Hawks two seasons ago and he's joined the archrival Kings this season, looking to not only remind of his defensive prowess, but to show what he can do offensively.

They were both terrific for their teams too with Simon putting up 19 points, nine rebounds, four steals and two assists on eight-of-11 shooting, along with doing a standout defensive job on Tyler Harvey.

Swaka Lo Buluk ended up with 14 points, three rebounds and two assists for the Hawks.

It wasn’t the night that the Hawks were hoping for from import guards Harvey (18 points) and Justin Robinson (10 points, eight assists) who combined to shoot 11 of 39, but they had others step up.

Dent delivered the best performance in his 21-game NBL career, with 19 points on a perfect seven-of-seven shooting from the field and five-of-five from downtown, while new import George King showed his shooting touch knocking down four-of-six from three, for 14 points.

The story of the opening five minutes of the fourth quarter then became Dent. He drained three three-pointers, scored on another floater and that put the Hawks back on top by seven points with the Hawks fans loving it.

Next up for the Hawks is another home clash against the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Thursday.

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 97 (Dent 19, Harvey 18, King 14, Swaka Lo Buluk 14)
SYDNEY KINGS 106 (Walton 32, Cooks 24, Simon 19) 

BOX SCORE