Hawks open NBL Cup account at expense of Breakers

Illawarra Hawks had too much firepower for the New Zealand Breakers as they scored their first win of the NBL Cup on Monday night.

Tyler Harvey (22 points, three steals), Justinian Jessup (20 points, three steals) and Cameron Bairstow (17 points, 14 of them in the first half) all fired for the Hawks in a 102-88 victory.

Deng Adel would have breathed a huge sigh of relief when he hit a three ball to open the game after going 0/15 two days ago in the loss to the Cairns Taipans. He finished with 10 points and two assists on 4/6 shooting for the game while making both his three-point attempts.

Hawks coach Brian Goorjian praised his side for turning around their fortunes after a tough loss in their cup opener.

"We made some adjustments and I thought our defence got us out and running and we got a contribution from everybody," Goorjian said.

"The big thing I like about our group right now is we have had a lot of different styles of losses and different styles of wins.

"These guys just keep bringing it the next day and keep trying to move forward in these challenging times."

The Breakers will also be sweating on the health of star import Lamar Patterson (13 points) who limped off in the third quarter after landing awkwardly on his knee.

Corey Webster led the Breakers with 22 points while Colton Iverson had his best game for the club with 13 points and 17 rebounds.

Tai Webster again didn’t shoot the ball great with 6/15 from the field but he did have 20 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. He and older brother Corey became the first brothers to score 20 points in the one NBL game since Mark and Brad Dalton for the Geelong Supercats in 1987.

Breakers coach Dan Shamir said his side paid dearly for their poor second term while he had no update on Patterson’s injury.

"The second quarter hurt us a lot. We gave up 33 points, many of them came from our turnovers," Shamir said.

"We came, I feel, with the right mentality and attitude but we broke very easily in that second quarter. This was another tough day.

"I don’t have any information other than our physio said he [Patterson] was done for today meaning he couldn’t put any weight on it, at least at the beginning. When we know something we will update."

The Hawks will take 5.5 NBL Cup points while the Breakers take 1.5 points. 

The Breakers looked lively early as Patterson found some early success and Iverson scored 10 points and grabbing eight rebounds for the first term.

But their early lead was eventually chased down by the Hawks who had Deng Adel throw down a stunning transition dunk and it was 21-21 at quarter-time.

Harvey nailed a step-back three early in second term and from there the Hawks went on a run building double-figure lead as Bairstow put together a run of baskets and the Breakers continued to commit turnovers with 11 by half-time.

Bairstow had 14 points at the main break and his side held a commanding 54-40 lead.

The Hawks continued to score freely to start the third but a delay due to a clock malfunction gave the Breakers time to regroup with veterans Corey Webster and Thomas Abercrombie coming out and shooting truly to cut the lead to single figures.

Then in the final minutes of the third term Jessup, Bairstow and Harvey all found the mark to take their back to an 81-64 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Harvey blazed two threes early in the last term although young Breaker Kyrin Galloway had a highlight of his own when he blocked a Jessup dunk attempt.

The Breakers will take a little confidence from some better offence in the final quarter which they won 24-21 but they have a lot to work on.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 6
NBL CUP WEEK 1

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 102 (Harvey 22, Jessup 20, Bairstow 17)

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 88 (C Webster 22, T Webster 20, Iverson 13, Patterson 13) 

POINTS AWARDED – Illawarra Hawks 5.5, New Zealand Breakers 1.5

BOX SCORE