Phoenix Snatch it at Death Over Hawks

Two highly-touted teams needed to bounce back at WIN Entertainment Centre on Monday night but only one could and it was the South East Melbourne Phoenix beating the Illawarra Hawks in dramatic fashion 88-87.

The Hawks were embarrassed back on Wednesday night to open Round 10 in Hobart losing to the New Zealand Breakers 90-67 while the return to Melbourne for the Phoenix started well, but fizzled out on Saturday night with a 22-point defeat to the Perth Wildcats.

So the two teams inside the top four were looking for a bounce back performance and while the Phoenix did start on fire and led by as many as 14, once the Hawks got back into it precious little separated them.

The Hawks did look to have done enough after forcing consecutive turnovers for breakaway Antonius Cleveland dunks in the last minute to put them up 87-84, but there was drama left.

In the end, it was down to 6.3 seconds left and the Phoenix had the ball out of a timeout down a point. Mitch Creek almost coughed it up, but it got to Xavier Munford who was fouled taking a three. 

He hit the first two and the Phoenix won by one without their coach Simon Mitchell, captain Kyle Adnam and key players Cam Gliddon, Reuben Te Rangi and Dane Pineau.

Munford not only was the late hero but had 24 points and five assists for South East Melbourne with Creek adding 20 points, three rebounds, three assists and two blocks.

Isaiah Le'afa also had 13 points, Zhou Qi 11 and seven rebounds, and Ryan Broekhoff 11 points and 16 boards.

Stand-in Phoenix coach Judd Flavell was proud of the response and the ultimate win.

"I was just proud of the guys with the response that we had. We had a tough loss at home and one that didn’t sit right with any of us for the last 24 hours," Flavell said.

"The great thing about having the quick turnaround is obviously we get the chance to get back on the floor. Just the attitude, the mindset was great from everybody and obviously we walk out of this place with a win which isn’t an easy place to get a win. 

"I'm just really happy with the mindset we went about our business with."

Tyler Harvey was responsible for getting the Hawks back into the game and had 20 points and three assists before he had some help from Sam Froling (17 points, five boards), Duop Reath (15 points, eight rebounds, four assists) and Xavier Rathan-Mayes (13 points, eight boards, five assists).

Hawks coach Brian Goorjian couldn’t hide his frustrations post-match.

"That's about as hard a one as I can remember. It's an accumulation of a lot of things over time that I thought is out of our control. We had issues during the course of the game and I thought we cleaned them up and did what we needed to do to win the game," Goorjian said. 

"There's been a frustration over a period of time. I liked what happened and we're in the dog days, I left a lot of charred souls in the video room leading into this game and we came out to really struggle in the same areas. 

"I don’t know that we got a stop in that first quarter and then we mixed up our defence, we got some stuff out of our zone and the 1-2-2 but we struggled all night with Xavier (Munford) on zone and man with the middle pick-and-roll. 

"But I thought we cleaned up the Creek and Broekhoff situation to get ourselves back in the game, and do what needed to do to win on our home court."

Both teams were determined to bounce back from disappointing last up losses earlier in Round 10, but it was the shorthanded Phoenix who picked up the early momentum. A triple to Xavier Munford and consecutive baskets to Mitch Creek had them up 9-4 early.

Triples to the Hawks from Duop Reath and Tim Coenraad got the Hawks back into it, but the Phoenix dominated the rest of the opening term including an and-one play and three-pointers to Isaiah Le'afa to see them go into quarter-time leading 28-18.

The Hawks responded with the opening eight points of the second quarter including two three-point bombs to Tyler Harvey, but again South East Melbourne responded with the next 10 points to go back up by 12.

While Illawarra had their moments to close the half including a third three from Harvey, the Phoenix maintained the edge including a triple from Lachlan Barker. Ryan Broekhoff had eight points and 12 with the Phoenix dominating the glass and leading 47-38 going into the half.

Le'afa opened the second half with a couple of buckets for South East Melbourne before a Zhou Qi putback had the margin still out to double-digits.

Harvey was doing his best to keep Illawarra close, but he needed some help and it was Sam Froling who stepped up including hitting a three-pointer on the three quarter-time buzzer to cut South East Melbourne's lead to 66-63.

Froling kept that momentum going with another score and then huge block on Creek to open the fourth quarter making it a one-point ball game.

Just as the Phoenix began to pull away again thanks to a three ball from Le'afa and and-one from Zhou Qi, Illawarra responded with three-pointers from Xavier Rathan-Mayes and Duop Reath to draw scores back level with just over four minutes left.

Strong moves and finishes to Munford and Creek again had the Phoenix up four with just over a minute left, but the Hawks responded with a three to Reath before a steal led to an Antonius Cleveland on the breakaway.

Then on the out of bounds play, the Phoenix again threw it away and it led to another breakaway Cleveland dunk to put the home team up three.

However, South East Melbourne still had one more chance down one with 6.5 seconds left coming out of a timeout. It was a broken play, but it got to Munford and he was fouled by Rathan-Mayes attempting the three. He made the first two and the Phoenix won by one.

The Phoenix are next up on Thursday night at home to the Sydney Kings while the Hawks host the Cairns Taipans on Saturday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 10

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 87 (Harvey 20, S Froling 17, Reath 15)

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 88 (Munford 24, Creek 20, Le'afa 13) 

BOX SCORE