Hawks Fire in Second Half to Overcome Phoenix

After an arm-wrestle of a first half, the Illawarra Hawks had to dig deep midway through the third quarter but could very well have produced their best 15 minutes of #NBL22 to come away with the 83-77 win over the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Sunday.

Even with Tyler Harvey limited to one point the entire game at John Cain Arena which came in the final minute, it was Xavier Rathan-Mayes and Antonius Cleveland who came up huge for the Hawks in a win that returns them to the top four.

After the Phoenix opened the second half with a run of scoring 14 of 18 points, the Hawks finished the third quarter with 15 of the last 18 with the game waking out of a grind in the second quarter to catch fire with Illawarra up two by three quarter-time.

The Hawks turned that into a 16-0 run when they hit the first four points of the fourth period. While there were some nervous moments late, they were able to answer every challenge to hold on for the six-point triumph.

Rathan-Mayes came up huge for Illawarra playing 23 minutes for 19 points on 8/12 shooting to go with three assists and two steals. Cleveland was equally important in the win with 16 points, seven rebounds and three assists.

Justinian Jessup added 15 points and seven rebounds, and Duop Reath 12 points, five boards, three blocks and two assists.

Hawks coach Brian Goorjian was especially happy that he called more on his bench and they came up huge.

"Obviously we've come out of a home stretch where we didn’t get done what we needed to get done, and now the pressure's on us," Goorjian said. 

"We've got a lot of the top teams on the road and this was the start of it, and everybody understood the significance of the game. So to win and to win the way that we won was really important. 

"We've probably been the worst team over the course of the season of involving our bench, and the depth of rotation but tonight we were in a hole and were stuck, and I think over the last four or five games we've started to get more contribution from our bench. 

"We were down 12 or 13 and I rolled deep into the bench, and only took them out to rest them. They carried us, got us back into the game and were hugely significant in the win."

Mitch Creek finished with 18 points for the Phoenix with Ryan Broekhoff adding 15 points and seven rebounds, Izayah Le'afa 14 points and three assists, and Xavier Munford 13 points, seven rebounds and six assists.

Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell was frustrated with his lack of bench contribution and poor finishing of quarters.

"I'm really disappointed. I just thought in the back end of quarters especially the first quarter we failed to score, failed to score at the back end of the second quarter, and started again really positive in the third and then started bouncing the ball around," Mitchell said.

"We sort of lost momentum when we had to make substitution and it just didn’t work for us. Our bench wasn’t really productive tonight and theirs was. They had a guy like Rathan-Mayes coming in to get the job done and he outscored our production on the bench on his quite comfortably actually."

Mitch Creek was on fire to start the game for the Phoenix hitting his team's first seven points for the 7-4 lead, but the Hawks were able to maintain pace and then shoot ahead with a spark from Xavier Rathan-Mayes off the bench.

Nothing separated the teams by quarter-time, though, with scores level at 18-18 and then it became a true grind in the second period.

The Phoenix made a break when they scored eight straight points on the back of a Zhou Qi flush, Ryan Broekhoff and-one, Xavier Munford bucket and Qi free-throw, but the Hawks responded with the next eight points to draw back level.

It was Rathan-Mayes who again was the spark with help from Isaac White with Tyler Harvey scoreless in the opening half. Rathan-Mayes then closed the half with a three-point play to tie scores up at 33-33.

Neither team really got anything going offensively and that showed on the shooting stats with the Phoenix going 37 per cent from the field and 16 per cent from deep, and the Hawks 39 per cent from the floor and 14 per cent from behind the arc.

Neither team was getting to the foul line either with just the nine free-throw attempts in the half but things kicked up a gear in the third.

It was all South East Melbourne coming out of the break with Creek opening up with a three to spark a run of nine straight points. Then when Izayah Le'afa announced himself on the contest offensively with seven quick points, the Phoenix were up double-digits.

The Hawks had to respond and they did starting with two quick buckets, including a three from Justinian Jessup. Broekhoff steadied things for the Phoenix and then a Kyle Adnam and-one restored the 10-point lead, but Illawarra were just warming up.

Ironically again with Harvey off the floor, that's when they got rolling thanks to Rathan-Mayes. With him running the point, Illawarra went on a 12-0 run including a buzzer-beater from Tim Coenraad to be up 57-55 by the end of three.

The Hawks kept the momentum going with Rathan-Mayes and Harry Froling extended the lead to six to start the fourth quarter, and it was soon out to seven not long after Jessup drained a three ball.

Then out of a timeout, the Hawks made the Phoenix pay for a turnover with Jessup's layup stretching the lead to 11. The Phoenix still made it interesting by closing to within four late, but the Hawks kept having all the answers to take the six-point win.

Both teams now have until next Sunday when they play again with the Hawks taking on the Tasmania JackJumpers in Hobart while the Phoenix have a tantalising Throwdown with the league-leading United.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 14

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 77 (Creek 18, Broekhoff 15, Le'afa 14)

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 83 (Rathan-Mayes 19, Cleveland 16, Jessup 15) 

BOX SCORE