Froling, Harvey inspire Hawks over United

Rob Loe started on fire for Melbourne United shooting from the outside but Sam Froling soon took over on the inside and Tyler Harvey got hot as the Illawarra Hawks impressed winning 106-93 to take top spot in the NBL.

The two teams played in a hotly contested playoff series last season and then just earlier in NBL25 it was a fiery match up also at John Cain Arena setting the tone for the NBL's top two teams to continue their rivalry.

In the end, the Hawks outworked United and that was on the back of 29 rebounds to 12 in the first half and finishing with 59 to 35 for the game which included 25 offensive rebounds for 33 second chance points.

The Hawks attempted five more field goals and four extra free-throws while breaking the game open in the second half with the lead as big as 21.

Froling took charge on the block with 12 points in the third quarter continuing a fascinating battle of contrasting centres with Melbourne's Loe.

The Hawks co-captain ended up with 20 points along with 11 rebounds and the Hawks won by 13 to improve to 10-5 to go top and hand Melbourne back-to-back regular season losses for the first time since late in NBL23.

His fellow co-captain Harvey had an impressive night too with 31 points, seven rebounds and four assists with Trey Kell III delivering 12 points and six boards, Darius Days 10 points and eight rebounds, and Davo Hickey nine points, five boards and three assists.

"We wanted to stay aggressive on the boards and go inside," Hawks coach Justin Tatum said.

"Once they had some guys out, we wanted to exploit them inside and get their guys in foul trouble if possible and have other guys do things they're not used to doing."

Melbourne is now second at 12-6 with Loe top-scoring with 19 points, six rebounds and two assists on 7/10 shooting from the floor and 3/5 from deep.

Ian Clark added 16 points on 4/7 three-point shooting with Jack White contributing 13 points, four rebounds and three assists, and Shea Ili 10 points and six assists.

Matthew Dellavedova had a rough shooting night going 2/11 but he did dish out eight assists.

United coach Dean Vickerman was highly critical of his side's lack of leadership, toughness and rebounding.

"As the game wore on, they were just smashing the o-boards and just driving us under," he said.

"I thought some of our leaders stopped tonight in different moments.

"They got caught on a screen, worried about a foul, got beaten in a rebound ... we were looking for excuses. Just toughen up.

"We were fortunate for it to be a 13-point margin - it felt like a 30-point margin to me."

Rob Loe kept his hot form going with the Melbourne centre knocking down two three balls to open the game and he scored his team's first eight points, and had 11 in the opening period.

However, the Hawks worked on top nicely thanks to pulling down 16 rebounds to seven including seven to two at the offensive end and they went into quarter-time leading 27-24.

Melbourne closed that gap early in the second and scores were level with a Jack White and-one, but the Hawks answered with a 10-3 run before United responded with three-pointers to Tanner Krebs and Ian Clark.

Loe then closed the half with another seven points to go into half-time with 16 points on 6/7 shooting with Melbourne leading 47-46 despite Illawarra dominating the glass with 29 rebounds to 12 and 12 offensive boards to four for 15 second chance points to nine.

It then became the Sam Froling show in the third quarter for the Hawks. They kept feeding him in the block and United had absolutely no answers for him as he knocked down six shots for 12 points.

On the back of that, Illawarra went on an 11-0 scoring run to break the game wide open with a 14-point lead which soon became 17 when Todd Blanchfield knocked down a three on yet another offensive board for the Hawks – this time off a missed free-throw.

Illawarra were still up 11 by three quarter-time and Melbourne could never get back closer than eight in the fourth quarter with the Hawks having all the answers to win by 13 and claim top spot.

Melbourne now prepares for a Throwdown against the South East Melbourne Phoenix also at John Cain Arena on Sunday while the Hawks next play next Sunday when they host the Perth Wildcats.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2024/25

MELBOURNE UNITED 93 (Loe 19, Clark 16 White 13)

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 106 (Harvey 31, Froling 20, Kell III 12)

BOX SCORE