Hawks prevail over desperate Breakers to make it three in a row

The Result

Illawarra Hawks 73 - NZ Breakers 71

The Story

It was another Hawks victory at the WIN Entertainment Centre on Saturday night as the home side prevailed 73-71 despite a late scare from a dogged NZ Breakers side.

The Hawks got off to the perfect start in front of a raucous home crowd at the Sandpit, with Tyler Harvey and Sam Froling taking control of the game from the opening tip.

Harvey knocked down the first shot of the night from beyond the arc and had seven points in as many minutes, while Froling bullied the Breakers inside as he feasted on a depleted opposition front court.

Hawks legend Tim Coenraad got the first minutes of his comeback halfway through the opening quarter, with the 300+ game superstar's entrance met with an enormous roar.

New Zealand proved they were up for the fight though in their final game before returning home, with captain Finn Delany dropping 13 first quarter points to help his side to a 27-24 lead at the opening break.

The second stanza saw the visitors shoot out to a handy seven point lead before the injection of Emmett Naar and Dan Grida brought about a change in fortunes.

Grida registered three points and a pair of steals to help change the momentum, while Naar was at his clever best with two baskets in consecutive minutes to help the Hawks to a three point lead with only a couple remaining in the half.

Once the Hawks ripped backed the lead, Justin Simon and Harvey ensured they went into the main break ahead - the star American duo helping the Hawks to a 42-35 lead after some late first half buckets.

It was a clunky start to the second half as both side's went scoreless in the opening two minutes - and only managed a combined 11 points through the first six minutes of play.

'Next Star' Justinian Jessup broke the shackles for the Hawks with a deuce, before skipper AJ Ogilvy and Harvey added to their tallies.

Jessup found his stroke with seven points in the quarter to give him 12 for the game, with a late Breakers three reducing the Hawks lead to eight with only the last term to play.

A Harvey hoop and harm at the start of the final frame set the crowd alight and looked destined to hand the momentum back to the Hawks, before Breakers guard Will McDowell-White landed his second three of the game and fourteenth point to pull the visitors within four.

The Breakers continued to throw punches - and even took the lead on the back of a Rasmus Back three-ball - before big bad Sam Froling took charge on both ends of the court.

Froling had boards, buckets and blocks as he willed his side back to the front, the Hawks leading by three with just over two to play. He also had a career high five blocks for the game - and in doing so became the first Hawk to register five swats in a game since AJ Ogilvy in December 2015.

A series of big plays (and calls) down the stretch almost handed the Breakers the win, but it was Justin Simon who sealed the game with a phenomenal defensive stand against Tai Webster, stealing the ball as the clock wound down, drawing the foul and then icing the game from the line with only seconds on the clock.

The Stats

Looking at the shooting stats, it's hard to see how the Hawks got up in this one. The home side only hit 37% from the field to the Breakers 41%, while Illawarra connected on only 20% of their three balls to the Kiwis 35%.

But it's the defensive stats that tell the real story, with the Hawks pinching the ball nine times from New Zealand, as well as rejecting eight shots.

The Hawks aren't the best sharers in the NBL and that was on full display again tonight with a measly total of five assists for the entire match compared to the Breakers 18. 

The rebound total was tied (44-44), but the Hawks turned the ball over a hell of a lot less (6-17), and dropped 42 points in the paint to 16. The Hawks also had 19 second chance points to the Breakers eight.

The Fallout

"Three games in a row we've won and we've held a team virtually into the sixties to win and I said last time I was in here it was keyed off Justin [Simon] and you go back to NZ in Tasmania, he had that block that won the game, tonight he had the steal that won the game," Hawks coach Brian Goorjian said.

"When you're scoring like we are and we're in the seventies or in the sixties, you're not running away from anybody so it's defensive plays at the end and he's made em and kept our season alive ," Goorjian said.

"Tonight and right down this stretch, it's like every game is for your season, you know you lose this one tonight and Melbourne rolls in rested and then you're on the road, it changes our whole fate. So really relieved and obviosly we've got some things to address, but the culture of the team is the defence and the effort and the togertherness and to be where we are in that area in such a short period of time in a first year team is something to be proud of," Goorjian said.

"That's not happening [a move to the SE Melbourne Phoenix]. I'm with with the Hawks and full attention on this. Credit to Phoenix, noone from there has contacted, I don't know where that came from. I'm really excited about the job I've got and really excited about the team and that's a distraction nobody needs," Goorjian said.

"Night in and night out we want to hang out hat on the defensive end. I think it just translates over to offence, when we're getting stops we're getting rebounds, we're getting out and playing fast, that makes us hard to beat. I'm on the ball pressuring the ball, getting deflections, getting rebounds and I think its contagious," Hawks guard Justin Simon said.

"We're a new group, we're young, we're still learning. Early in the year we lost a couple of those that we're winning now, so we're learning from it. Coach has been really hard on us, we've been watching a lot of film, at practice we've been getting after it, competing everyday and like I said, we just want to hang our hat on the defensive end," Simon said.

The Road Ahead

Round 19 - Tuesday May 18, 7:30pm AEST v Melbourne United @ WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong