Hawks go down to the Bullets in Brisbane

Nathan Sobey fired on his return from injury as the Brisbane Bullets replaced the Hawks in fourth spot on the NBL ladder.

The in-form shooting guard (25 points) missed Wednesday's defeat of Tasmania with a foot injury and provided the early spark with 22 first-half points on his home court on Sunday afternoon.

Mitch Norton (18 points), Tyrell Harrison (18 points, seven rebounds) and Chris Smith (19 points) were also regular contributors as the Bullets dealt well with the pre-game scratchings of forwards Josh Bannan and Casey Prather due to illness.

Justin Schueller's side led for most of the contest and their biggest first-half lead, among many small runs, was 12 points.

But those spurts were answered each time by the visitors, with Tyler Harvey (29 points, six-of-11 triples) on song to keep the Hawks within three at halftime.

Point guards Norton, Shannon Scott and Sam McDaniel didn't have a turnover between them, with the Bullets giving it away just seven times.

The Hawks were fresh off a double-overtime defeat of the JackJumpers in Tasmania on Friday and the Bullets' attacking spread eventually proved too much.

A pair of Mitch Norton triples in the third quarter pushed the margin back to double figures and the hosts confidently closed out the contest despite Smith fouling out with more than four minutes left.

Brisbane improved to 11-11 while the Hawks (9-10) dropped to sixth, the loss just their third in 10 games since Justin Tatum's ascension to head coach.

A hero in Friday's win, Gary Clark (13 points, eight rebounds, three assists) was kept relatively quiet while Sam Froling (15 points, seven rebounds) briefly threatened to blow it open for the Hawks.

The Hawks return home to WIN Entertainment Centre for two important matches this week against Cairns on Thursday night and the Adelaide 36ers on Saturday night.

HUNGRY JACKS NBL ROUND 15

BRISBANE BULLETS 110 (Sobey 25, Smith 19, Harrison 18, Norton 18)
ILLAWARRA HAWKS 103 (Harvey 29, Froling 15, Clark 15)

BOX SCORE