Davis stars as Sixers pluck Hawks

Two wins in three days and suddenly the Adelaide 36ers are on a roll in the NBL with import point guard Kendric Davis delivering 32 points and Montrezl Harrell a double-double in the 102-100 road win over the Illawarra Hawks.

The Hawks had started the season in hot form beating Cairns, Brisbane and Sydney, and Trey Kell III (29 points, four rebounds, four assists) gave them a seven-point lead early in the fourth quarter on Saturday at WIN Entertainment Centre.

However, the 36ers kept coming and big plays late from Davis (32 points, four assists, 5/9 from deep) and Isaac Humphries (17 points, eight rebounds) with big buckets and a huge block saw them back up Thursday's home win over the South East Melbourne Phoenix by handing the Hawks their first loss of NBL25.

While Davis was happy with what he did offensively, it was his defence both against the Hawks and on Thursday against the Phoenix he was most proud of.

"Coach called me out after the first two games defensively, about being better, and I knew I could," Davis said.

"Going forward, forget offence. If we get stops, get running, everything takes care of itself."

Former NBA Best Sixth Man Harrell again started in a big front court for Adelaide alongside Humphries and delivered 17 points and 10 rebounds with DJ Vasiljevic adding 18 points with the 36ers outscoring the Hawks by 20 points in his 32 minutes.

Harvey finished with another 22 points with 5/11 from downtown for the Hawks while Darius Days had his third double-double in four games this season with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

Hawks coach Justin Tatum felt a little bit of complacency might have crept in after his team's 3-0 start.

"Down the stretch, we just allowed Adelaide to get whatever they wanted," Tatum said, copping his share of the blame for an effort he described as complacent.

"Even from the beginning ... it wasn't (looking like) a team we felt had a three-game winning streak.

"If we don't allow a start like we did we could have had a different outcome."

Coming off their Thursday night win at home, Adelaide started on fire with the first seven points of the contest before opening up a 14-4 lead but it was former 36er Trey Kell III keeping Illawarra in touch.

Kell then knocked down a triple to bring the Hawks back within three and the home team kept the momentum going to end up leading 32-27 by the end of one.

The points kept on coming in the second quarter with the teams combining for another 47 of them and it was Illawarra narrowly leading 54-52 by the half-time break with plenty of offence, and not a whole lot of defence, being played at both ends.

By the half, Kell had 14 points in a Hawks team shooting at 56 per cent from the field while his point guard combatant Kendric Davis had 19 points on 8/10 shooting for the 36ers who were going at 59 per cent as a team despite the nine turnovers.

Three balls to Jason Cadee and Lat Mayen helped Adelaide's lead get back out to six in the third quarter, but the Hawks responded and scores were all square at 81-81 going into the fourth.

It was Kell who hit the first seven points of the fourth quarter including a pair of three balls against his old side but Adelaide kept in the contest and Isaac Humphries returned them to the lead with just over three minutes to play.

Tyler Harvey responded up the other end with a three ball before the big plays continued with a Davis knocking down his fifth triple to restore the 36ers to the lead with 1:15 to play.

Harvey had a great wide open look at the three with 15 second to play, but it rimmed out and from there the Sixers held strong for the impressive two-point win.

The 36ers are back home on Friday night against the Sydney Kings while the Hawks also stay in Wollongong to host the Tasmania JackJumpers on Saturday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2024/25

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 100 (Kell III 29, Harvey 22, Days 12)

ADELAIDE 36ERS 102 (Davis 32, Vasiljevic 18, Harrell 17, Humphries 17)

BOX SCORE