Hawks overcome Breakers to take top six spot

Precious little separated them coming into the game and it was a tight affair all afternoon with the Illawarra Hawks taking the place of the New Zealand Breakers in the NBL's top six with the 89-85 win.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Another NBL24 classic between the Hawks and Breakers has come to a nail-biting close ?<br><br>Gary Clark was in inspired form for the victorious Illawarra to take home Foot Locker Player of the Game ? <a href="https://t.co/Ovxjd5m5bM">pic.twitter.com/Ovxjd5m5bM</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1751473099219071416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Both teams came into WIN Entertainment Centre on identical 10-12 records and already having won earlier this weekend.

The Hawks snapped a three-game losing run by winning in Perth on Thursday while the Breakers kept their improved form going beating the Tasmania JackJumpers at home on Friday.

That set the stage for a crucial match up with a spot in the top six on the line with three rounds and five games each remaining for the rest of the season.

Every time the Breakers threatened to pull away the Hawks would come back with New Zealand leading by eight in the first quarter after a Zylan Cheatham (19 points, 11 rebounds) three but by quarter-time, scores were tied at 22-22.

The Breakers again opened up a 12-point lead in the second quarter but again by half-time the Hawks had closed that to 48-42 by the break thanks to a late 9-3 run.

New Zealand were clinging to a four-point lead still going into the fourth but Lachlan Olbrich (nine points, five rebounds) got the Hawks back into it. Tyler Harvey (19 points) gave them their first lead with 5:45 on the clock.

Both teams lost key players late with Cheatham and Mantas Rubstavicius (17 points, four steals) fouling out for the Breakers as did Sam Froling (eight points, six boards, four assists) for the Hawks, but it was destined to go down to the wire.

Anthony Lamb was the latest Breaker to foul out with 19 seconds to go after 13 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Gary Clark (29 points, eight rebounds) gave Illawarra the two-point lead at the foul line with New Zealand having one last chance.

Parker Jackson-Cartwright (18 points, four steals) was trusted with the ball and ran the clock down, but as he started his drive he lost control. He bounced the ball off his foot with the Hawks icing the game at the line thanks to Davo Hickey.

Illawarra ended up scoring nine of the game's last 12 points to improve to 11-12 on the season to take the place of New Zealand (10-13) in the top six by the end of Round 17.

Hawks coach Justin Tatum was delighted with his team's effort to beat both Perth and New Zealand this weekend.

"The adversity that we came through by missing 14 free-throws, having 10 turnovers in the first half and we just didn’t look ourselves," he said.

"Then to find a will to win, it's a true testament of what this team can do."

Breakers coach Mody Maor is still happy with how his team is playing despite the loss.

"What I take from the game is that this is an incredible group of players who really deserve to get to the playoffs," he said.

"In this circumstances of the back-to-back with the time in between games, I don’t think that if you watched any moment that it looked like our team is less intense or cares less or isn’t ready to come play.

"That gives me great confidence in the fact that we can win enough games to make it into the play-in, and then I like our chances."

HUNGRY JACKS NBL ROUND 17

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 89 (Clark 29, Harvey 19, Olbrich 9, Robinson 9)

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 85 (Cheatham 19, Jackson-Cartwright 18, Rubstavicius 17)

BOX SCORE