Hawks finish on a high in Tasmania

The Illawarra Hawks showed what they still might have been capable of as defending champions with Tyler Harvey, QJ Peterson and JaVale McGee starring in the NBL season-ending 103-70 win over the Tasmania JackJumpers.

Coming off last season's championship and consistency has plagued the Hawks all the way through, but they will be left frustrated with what might have been as they showed again what their best looked like on Wednesday night at Hobart's MyState Bank Arena.

The last two championship winners started the opening round with the JackJumpers unable to move from sixth position and the Hawks no longer any chance of making the finals two games back.

The Hawks were clearly on a mission to finish their season on a high. The shooting touch of Harvey and Peterson, and the all-round size and talents of three-time NBA champion McGee was too much for the JackJumpers.

Despite qualifying for finals, the JackJumpers remain without key foursome Will Magnay (toe), Ben Ayre (osteitis pubis), Bryce Hamilton (knee) and Sean Macdonald (knee).

The Hawks were having fun in the first half and by half-time had opened up a 54-34 lead thanks to scoring the last nine points. Harvey and Peterson combined for 27 of those points on 6/11 shooting from deep.

Josh Bannan and Majok Deng battled hard for Tasmania combining for 24 points on 7/12 shooting but the rest of the team only managed 10 points on 4/22.

Illawarra pushed that lead out to 30 by three quarter-time before scoring the first six points of the fourth term on the way to the 33-point win to finish their championship defence at 13-20.

Harvey hit 6/10 from behind the arc for 21 points with four assists and four rebounds with Peterson adding 20 points and three assists on 3/6 from deep.

McGee ended his first NBL season with 15 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks including a monster one on Bannan with Sam Froling contributing 11 points, nine rebounds and three assists.

It was a tough offensive night for Tasmania with 32 per cent shooting overall and 3/24 from behind the three-point arc with Bannan and Tyger Campbell both finishing with 17 points.

The JackJumpers made an encouraging enough start before the Hawks got rolling with QJ Peterson, JaVale McGee and Tyler Harvey combining for seven straight points.

Illawarra went on another nine straight points too topped off by a triple from Peterson before that lead got out to 12 with a three ball from Harvey.

Tasmania brought it back to eight with Josh Bannan and Anthony Drmic scoring just before quarter-time, and then the home team was able to bring it back to five early in the second period.

The Hawks then responded with the next nine points starting with three-pointers from Wani Swaka Lo Buluk and Harvey with the lead growing to 14 with another 9-0 run.

Illawarra then closed the half with the last nine points too and that saw then in control leading 54-34 with shooting 44 per cent to 33 in the opening 20 minutes, and making 8/18 from three-point range opposed to 0/10.

The JackJumpers did score the opening four points of the second half but they couldn’t build any momentum with the Hawks out to a 30-point advantage when Mason Peatling landed a three ball on three quarter-time on the way to the eventual 33-point victory.

The season is now over for the Hawks while the JackJumpers look set to open the finals in two weeks' time when they play in a cut throat Play-In Qualifier most likely away to Melbourne United.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2025/26 – ROUND 22

TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 70 (Bannan 17, Campbell 17, Deng 11)

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 103 (Harvey 21, Peterson 20, McGee 15)

BOX SCORE