Kings Hold Out Hawks to Stay Top of NBL

The Illawarra Hawks gave it their best shot but the Sydney Kings held out their rivals on the back of scoring the game's last five points to leave the WIN Entertainment Centre with the 86-79 Friday night victory.

The Hawks never stopped fighting on their home floor hunting that third win of the season on the back of a double overtime loss in Cairns, but the Kings ended up just doing enough to improve to 11-4 and remain atop the NBL23 standings.

It wasn’t a complete overcoming of the fourth quarter woes of the Kings though. On the back of blowing a 14-point lead at the start of the fourth quarter to the Tasmania JackJumpers, Sydney again led Illawarra by 11 to start the fourth.

The Hawks were able to claw their way back all the way to within two points after a Tyler Harvey three ball with two minutes to play. 

This time, though, Sydney responded and it was a brilliant Xavier Cooks inbounds pass to Shaun Bruce for the layup that sealed the deal and the seven-point victory.

The Kings once again left the door open by only shooting 12/20 from the foul line and 8/31 from three, but Xavier Cooks was outstanding once more with his all-round performance for 21 points, nine rebounds and three assists on 9/13 shooting.

Tim Soares added 18 points and nine rebounds for the winners, DJ Vasiljevic 17 points, five boards and three assists, and Derrick Walton Jr nine points and nine assists.

Kings coach Chase Buford paid credit to what the Hawks threw at them throughout the night.

"It's a good rivalry and there's a lot of respect between these two groups," Buford said.

"We respect the heck out of their group and there's a mutual respect there, and in a local derby game everyone's fired up and competitive. 

"Credit to the Hawks for throwing their best foot forward lately and throwing punches as much as they can, and hopefully they can string a few more together. They're playing better basketball now and against us, it's always a fun, good game."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">SHAUN BRUCE DEJA VU ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Sports &amp; Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/MQiDitnvWx">pic.twitter.com/MQiDitnvWx</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1603695898613075968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 16, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It was another spirited performance from the Hawks with Tyler Harvey top-scoring with 19 points despite just going 3/10 from deep and having four turnovers.

Peyton Siva finished with 15 points and six assists for Illawarra, Sam Froling 13 points and seven rebounds, Mangok Mathiang nine points and eight boards, Deng Deng nine points and four rebounds, and Michael Frazier II eight points, four boards and three assists.

Hawks coach Jacob Jackomas took heart in a second straight strong performance against a top four team.

"I thought we had a pretty good lead in the first quarter and we spoke about keeping a lead because obviously we haven’t been in a situation like that," Jackomas said. 

"We have started a couple of times where we've come up with a lead and haven’t been able to keep it, sometimes it's a defensive effort or sometimes what we're doing on the offensive end. 

"I think this time it was a little bit offensively and we were pretty decent with our defence. They are obviously top-of-the-table and we are where we are, and it was a good effort and I feel like we had a chance at the end of the game with Mangok's putback. 

"But that's what happens and we've got to try to get a break somehow in some way."

The Hawks came out strongly on their home floor with Michael Frazier II and Peyton Siva helping them to a 10-6 opening, but Xavier Cooks was keeping Sydney in touch before Justin Simon and Derrick Walton Jr threes put them in front.

The Hawks again responded with the next six points before Sydney scored the next seven. The first quarter of runs continued with the Hawks closing it out with an 11-1 run.

That included a three-point play from Mangok Mathiang and a triple to Wani Swaka Lo Buluk to see Illawarra leading 29-21.

Mathiang pushed that Hawks lead out to 10 to start the second quarter before DJ Vasiljevic joined Cooks in bringing the Kings back into the contest. Eventually three-pointers from Shaun Bruce and Tim Soares regained the lead for Sydney which they maintained at 45-43 at the half.

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Cooks and Vasiljevic combined for 21 of those Kings points but the Hawks kept in touch largely on the back 12 points off the 10 Kings turnovers despite just the 14 points in the second period.

Cooks started the second half strongly too with the first four points to push the Kings advantage out to six but the Hawks still stayed in touch and threes from Deng Deng and Tyler Harvey helped with that.

Cooks was proving the difference and a couple of dunks to close the third quarter helped the defending champs still lead 65-60.

The Kings kept on asking every challenge and Jaylin Galloway and Vasiljevic pushed that lead back to 11 to start the fourth quarter, which is where it stayed after a rim-rocking throwdown from Jordan Hunter.

The Hawks weren’t going away though. Harvey, Sam Froling, Deng and Siva combined for a 9-0 run and suddenly those Kings fourth quarter woes were becoming apparent once more with the margin just two with five minutes left.

This time, Chase Buford got the response he was after out of the timeout with a three-point play to Soares and then another bucket to Simon. However, Illawarra kept on coming and eventually with two minutes to play, Harvey's three brought them back within two.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">That&#39;s a MAN&#39;S JAM XAVIER COOKS ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Sports &amp; Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/pfHDxZLN2Y">pic.twitter.com/pfHDxZLN2Y</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1603689230609178624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 16, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

In the end, two huge offensive rebounds for two free-throws to Soares and then a brilliant inbounds pass from Cooks to Bruce after he had just missed both free-throws sealed Sydney's seven-point win.

Both teams now have a quick turnaround to Sunday with the Kings first up against the South East Melbourne Phoenix in Gippsland before the Hawks play Melbourne United at John Cain Arena.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 11

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 79 (Harvey 19, Siva 15, Froling 13)

SYDNEY KINGS 86 (Cooks 21, Soares 18, Vasiljevic 17) 

BOX SCORE