“I feel that every game has been tense and we're getting every team's best shot." 

Illawarra’s had more impressive wins this season, but none more important than Tuesday’s grafting 89-84 victory over Tasmania in Wollongong. 

The ability to bounce back quickly from disappointment has been the defining trait of Justin Tatum’s tenure as Hawks coach – and he’d never been more disappointed than he was following last week’s last-gasp loss to last-placed Cairns at the WIN Entertainment Centre.

It’s why, despite his team being two wins clear at the top of the ladder, and odds-on to finish there come regular season’s end, Tuesday’s showdown on their home floor was must-win. 

“It’s extremely, extremely important,” Tatum said following the victory. 

“You lose a game like that, with the situation that we were in where in, it would have been potentially our third lost in a row, it would start messing with our locker room mentality. It was very important for us to get back on the winning track.” 

It avoided a third straight loss for what would have been just the second time under Tatum following a 111-105 loss to the Phoenix at home two starts’ previous.  

Star back-court pair Trey Kell and Tyler Harvey once again laid the scoring platform, finishing with 19 and 18 points respectively, the former going 11-13 from the foul-line and providing four assists. 

Co-captain Sam Froling also relished the absence of key JackJumpers big-man Will Magnay to finish with 15 points, six rebounds, and four assists, while Darius Days had a telling 12 points and six boards.

Scout blocks JackJumpers one-two punch 

When rolling, there’s no double-act more difficult to clamp than Tassie pair Milton Doyle and Jordan Crawford. The Hawks managed just that on Tuesday, remarkably keeping Doyle to just two (unsuccessful) field goal attempts in the opening half. 

He finished 0-9, with his lone point for the contest coming from the foul-line. 

Crawford was 1-4 from the field in the first half before finishing with 13 points at 35 per cent from the field. The visitors had other contributors, led by Sean Macdonald’s 19 points at 5-7 from deep, but their stars were not able to shine. 

“They’re the focal point of their group, Doyle and Crawford,” Tatum said. 

“Crawford’s coming off the bench now being a high scorer, and Doyle does his thing day in and day out. We wanted to make sure that we made everything tough for them, especially Doyle since he’s starting, and keep our eye on Crawford and make everything tough for him.  

“We didn't want some of their role players [to play so well], Sean Macdonald had a really good game, a couple of other guys put the ball in the hole, but we really wanted to make sure that Doyle didn't get heated up during the course of the game.”   

Ghosts of Taipans loss won’t linger 

Tasmania had the lead for just 12 seconds of the entire contest, but there were shades of déjà vu when the JackJumpers produced a 22-14 third quarter that cut a 13-point halftime buffer to just two midway through the third term. 

The Hawks gave up a staggering 40 third-quarter points in the loss to Cairns, but Tatum said it didn’t dent the trust he has in his team to ride out runs.  

“We didn't want to start that third quarter like we did again today, but that was something that we talked about a couple days ago,” Tatum said. 

“The resilience I've seen [from] my guys, that's why I didn't call a timeout. I could have burned one early and they could have showed [signs of] ‘oh, we're back to the same spot’ but I said ‘no, I trust you guys to figure it out’ and we made a play to stop that run and get a dunk to get our juices back flowing. That's just the growth of this group that we've been seeing since we started in early August.”   

Run of centuries ends in winning fashion 

The win snapped a nine-game run of the Hawks posting 100 points or more, including in a pair of losses to South East Melbourne. The unbroken run matched their tally of centuries for all of last season under Tatum, but the coach was happy to notch a victory that showed the type of grit required when the post-season does arrive. 

“I told the guys in the locker room, and all the coaches, ‘man, if we could keep winning games at 89-90 some points, I'm okay with that, as long as the other team scores less than us,” Tatum said.

“Every game is like a finals type of situation because, right now, being at the top of the ladder, clearly everybody will want to give you their best shot.  

“I feel that every game has been tense and we're getting every team's best shot." 

“That could simulate [finals] a little bit, but I feel that every game we've been in recently has been a finals type of situation.”  

The Hawks are in action at home again this Saturday against New Zealand, with tip-off at 5.30pm - WIN Entertainment Centre