Hawks Prevail Over Kings to Nab Home Court

If this was entrée, then bring on the NBL semi-final battle between the Illawarra Hawks and Sydney Kings starting in the 'Gong after the Hawks grabbed home court advantage with an 87-84 victory on Sunday.

A massive crowd of 12,632 filled Qudos Bank Arena to watch the NSW rivals battle over second position to close the #NBL22 regular season and to earn home court advantage in the semi finals over the other.

They knew they were going to play each other, it was just a matter who would have two of the three games on their home floor, and fittingly it wasn’t decided until the final buzzer.

The Hawks were on fire to start the game with Justinian Jessup hitting all six of his shots for 15 opening quarter points. As a team, Illawarra went 8/10 from downtown in the first half to be up 13 at the major break.

However, the Kings were never going to go down without a fight even without MVP nominee Jaylen Adams. 

Sydney was able to get it back to a one possession game and in a dramatic finish, Ian Clark stepped on the sideline when knocking down a three. Then DJ Vasiljevic couldn’t make his desperation triple as time was winding down for the Hawks to claim the three-point win.

On the back of the overtime game between the two last week in Wollongong, it sets the stage wonderfully for their semi-final battle.

Justinian Jessup finished with 24 points for the Hawks on 5/7 shooting from beyond the arc with Antonius Cleveland adding 18 points, six rebounds and three steals, Tyler Harvey 15 points on 4/9 from deep, and Duop Reath 12 points, six rebounds and two blocks.

Hawks coach Brian Goorjian was proud of the win obviously, but more so to have been part of helping Illawarra play their part in building this rivalry with Sydney.

"You come in here with this this many people and we've got a series coming up that's going to be absolutely amazing, and you can see we've captured the city. That's really been the goal more than just the game of basketball," Goorjian said.

"It's about the series and competition, and what this does for it. I just thought there's been a lot of pressure on us, on Illawarra, and the only way you can have a competition is to have two teams. We haven’t done that previously, but now with the new ownership and the build is letting us do that. 

"We got a few licks in last year and now this year, where's it going to go. And now as I walk into this stadium we're playing for second place against a team like that with so many people in the stands, it was two teams fighting for that spot and it came to the wire."

Xavier Cooks delivered another 20 points, 14 rebounds and three assists for the Kings while Jarell Martin returned with 13 points and five boards. DJ Vasiljevic added 11 points as did Wani Swaka Lo Buluk while Makur Maker added eight points and seven rebounds.

Considering a win would have meant Game 1 would have been in Sydney on Wednesday night, Kings coach Chase Buford wasn’t too disappointed with the result.

"It probably was the ideal result for us honestly just to give Jaylen, Jarell and everybody else a few more days to rest," Buford said. 

"I'm proud of the way the guys fought back while having everything going against them the way it was. Credit to Illawarra, they were on fire with fadeaway, tough, highly contested threes and they were all going in. 

"They shoot 44 per cent from three and do a great job of shot making to build up enough of a lead to be able to hold on in the end. But I'm really proud of our guys for fighting back especially when we probably all knew the best result was for us to get a few more days rest."

It was a trademark offensive rebound and putback to start the game from Xavier Cooks for Sydney, but it didn’t take long for Illawarra to assume the momentum thanks to Justinian Jessup.

He put up four quick points and then soon knocked down a pair of three balls as did Tyler Harvey. The two left-handers helped the Hawks go on a stunning 15-2 run to break the game wide open at 19-6.

Sydney steadied with six straight points out of a timeout but then another triple and long jumper from Jessup had Illawarra up 27-12, and still 32-18 by quarter-time with Jessup going for 15 points on a perfect 6/6.

As a team the Hawks shot 68 per cent from the floor and were 6/7 from downtown before the Kings opened up with two triples in the second period from DJ Vasiljevic and Ian Clark.

The Hawks again took over, though, with Antonius Cleveland setting the tone defensively and capping a 12-2 run with a steal and finish after seven quick points from Duop Reath and a three ball from Harvey.

To Sydney's credit, they were able to regroup the rest of the half including getting three-pointers from Wani Swaka Lo Buluk and Jarell Martin to only trail by 13 at the half despite the Hawks going at 61 per cent from the floor and 8/10 from beyond the arc.

The Kings worked back into the contest in the third quarter. They held Illawarra to just the 17 points and put up 28 themselves.

When Angus Glover knocked down a three, Qudos Bank Arena exploded and it was a two-point margin, and that's where it stayed at three quarter-time.

Jessup opened the fourth term with his fifth triple for Illawarra, but Sydney had picked up the momentum and they hit the next seven points including five of those to Swaka Lo Buluk to snatch the lead.

The Hawks were able to reply with the next five points from Reath and Harvey setting up a grandstand last five minutes with home court advantage on the line.

Cleveland was able to stretch the Hawks lead to five, but Sydney wasn’t going away and eventually with 35 seconds left Cooks hit one at the foul line to make it a one-point game again.

A couple of frantic possessions didn’t change the score and in the end the Kings had a couple of late chances, but couldn’t take toll with the Hawks holding on in another thriller.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 21

SYDNEY KINGS 84 (Cooks 20, Martin 13, Vasiljevic 11, Swaka Lo Buluk 11)

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 87 (Jessup 24, Cleveland 18, Harvey 15) 

BOX SCORE