The Illawarra Hawks didn’t let any complacency creep in as they took care of business of a terribly shorthanded Brisbane Bullets to win 121-87 at home on Monday night to further consolidate top spot.
The Hawks had moved clear in first place with the 22-point win over Melbourne United 48 hours earlier and remained at WIN Entertainment Centre looking to continue the momentum.
The odds were stacked against the Bullets who arrived having lost their past three games, and losing superstar Casey Prather just before the tip with an ankle injury.
He joined Tyrell Harrison, Rocco Zikarsky and Deng Adel sidelined with Emmett Naar still suiting up while Josh Adams and Mitch Norton pushed through to play.
Tohi Smith-Milner, starting up front in the absence of Harrison and Zikarsky, hurt an ankle early but was able to come back on and try to hold down the fort.
You couldn’t fault the effort the Bullets players out there were giving and that did even include a 15-2 run early in the second quarter, but they couldn’t go with the league-leaders.
The Hawks were just scoring at will and put up 35 points in the first quarter, then another 35 in the third and the lead blew out to as much as 42 before the eventual 34-point win.
The only downside for Illawarra was a hamstring injury to Darius Days after he had six quick points when he came on in the first quarter.
The Hawks remain clear in top spot at 17-8 and it was a blistering offensive display shooting 62 per cent to go with a 40-minute record 37 assists.
Tyler Harvey and Trey Kell III only combined for 15 points, but the former also had seven assists and three steals, and the latter 11 assists and six rebounds.
Sam Froling top-scored with 17 points and seven rebounds with Wani Swaka Lo Buluk adding 16 points, Mason Peatling 15 points and seven boards, Lachlan Olbrich 14 points and six rebounds, and Hyunjung Lee 12 points, seven boards and four assists.
The job of the Bullets making the top six is getting tougher with them now 10-15 with Keandre Cook top-scoring with 19 points to go with nine rebounds with Josh Bannan adding 15 points, six boards and five assists, Josh Adams 12 points, and Isaac White 11 points and three rebounds.
The signs were ominous early for the Bullets with the Hawks scoring two easy buckets, but they did well to stick with Illawarra for the first half of the opening term.
The Hawks were finding scoring too easily, though, and when they went on a 12-2 run with a couple of threes from Todd Blanchfield, another from Darius Days who also had a three-point play, and it was a 17-point lead.
Illawarra were leading 35-20 by the end of one with a trademark Tyler Harvey buzzer beater and that lead was out to 17 again at the start of the second, but then the Bullets made an impressive run.
Against the odds, Brisbane dug deep to score 15 of the next 17 points including a pair of three balls to Josh Adams, and another to Tohi Smith-Milner who shook off hurting his ankle in the opening minutes.
The Bullets had brought it all the way back to a four-point ball game but the Hawks responded with their own run of 13 straight points with Mason Peatling having the half of his life with seven of those.
Peatling also finished with Illawarra’s last four points of the half and the home team and league-leaders went into the break leading 56-41 thanks to shooting 61 per cent from the field to 41 from the Bullets.
The Hawks opened the second half with the first five points with a three ball from Swaka Lo Buluk and that saw the lead grow to 20 for the first time in the game.
Illawarra ended up piling on another 35 points in the quarter to lead by 31 at three quarter-time before rolling to the 34-point triumph.
The Hawks now head to Cairns to play the Taipans on Thursday night while the Breakers remain on the road to play the New Zealand Breakers on Friday in what is now a must-win affair for them.
HUNGRY JACK’S NBL SEASON 2024/25
ILLAWARRA HAWKS 121 (Froling 17, Swaka Lo Buluk 16, Peatling 15)
BRISBANE BULLETS 87 (Cook 19, Bannan 15, Adams 12)
