Hawks topple Taipans to keep top spot on NBL ladder
The Cairns Taipans did a good job curtailing the scoring prowess of the Illawarra Hawks, but the league leaders still did enough for an 87-75 NBL victory in Far North Queensland.
The Hawks arrived at the Cairns Convention Centre on top of the NBL ladder and having put up an average of 104 points a game, 12 more than any other team.
But the Taipans did well turning the contest into a grind without star young point guard Taran Armstrong and import centre Tanner Groves.
The Snakes scored 11 straight points early and were on top for most of the first half, with both teams struggling to find much fluency.
However, Tyler Harvey capped off a 7-0 run to close the half with a three on the buzzer to put the Hawks up 40-38 at the main break.
It was anything but pretty in the first half with the teams combining to shoot 25-of-76 at 33 per cent overall, and just 6-of-32 from three-point range at 19 per cent, but the Hawks were starting to warm up.
Harvey made another triple early in the third quarter and the Hawks did lead by as much as seven, but the Taipans stuck with them with threes to Kyrin Galloway and Pedro Bradshaw.
The Hawks were up by just one heading into the fourth and it was their front-court pair of Sam Froling (10 points, seven rebounds, two blocks) and Lachlan Olbrich (10 points, five boards) who led them to the win.
After Darius Days fouled out after just 13 minutes for two points and six rebounds, the big-men pairing combined for seven straight points to restore Illawarra's advantage as they won by 12 to maintain top spot with a 5-1 win-loss record.
Harvey top-scored for the Hawks with 20 points, along with four rebounds and three assists. Fellow guard Trey Kell III only shot 4-of-15, but still had 14 points and seven assists, with his team plus-22 when he was out there.
Will Hickey provided a spark once more with nine points, five assists and four rebounds, while defensive menace Wani Swaka Lo Buluk did well holding Rob Edwards to 17 points on 5-of-16 shooting.
"It came down to our toughness and we knew we were going to come here and get battle tested, and I was very impressed with how I was able to play both of my bigs down the stretch," coach Justin Tatum said.
"Defensively nothing dropped and we were able to get some consistent rebounds, and Trey and Tyler did their thing, and Davo and Swak were incredible on Edwards and Bradshaw."
The Taipans are now 3-4, but have lost their past three games.
Bradhaw collected 18 points, 14 rebounds and three assists against the Hawks, with Sam Waardenburg contributing 14 points, 10 boards and four assists, and Akoldah Gak 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Cairns coach Adam Forde lamented that his team couldn't quite keep up their best work for 40 minutes.
"There was glimpses throughout different stages of the game where we sort of lost concentration but it really just came down to execution," he said.
"Credit to Illawarra, they just capitalised on that momentum and didn't look back."
