Hawks too good for Kings in NBL Cup Game Seven

Written by Matt McQuade for Kings Media

Result: Illawarra Hawks 89 Brydens Lawyers Sydney Kings 69

Stats That Matter: Hawks 52% FG; Hawks 21 assists; Hawks 50 points in the paint; Rebound count Hawks 45 Kings 42

Kings MVP: In a well-beaten side, Craig Moller worked hard all night.

Turning Point: The Hawks shut down the Kings for the opening five minutes of the third quarter.

The game was over when: A Justin Simon dunk made it a 22-point Hawks’ lead with more than seven minutes remaining.

Trending in the right direction: Not an ideal situation, but the Kings were able to give all their development players time on the floor and they all worked hard to the final buzzer.

It was a tough Thursday night at the office for the Brydens Lawyers Sydney Kings at John Cain Arena in Melbourne, as they were dealt an 89-69 defeat by the Illawarra Hawks in the team’s seventh game of the NBL Cup.

In what was the 100^th meeting between the two clubs, Illawarra led 45-44 at halftime after a back-and-forth battle in the opening two quarters but took over in the third period. The Hawks ran roughshod over the Kings in the quarter, restricting Sydney to just eight points in ten minutes while scoring 25 of their own.

The Kings shot just 3 of 15 from the field in the third period after a solid first half offensively and were down 70-52 with ten minutes left. It proved to be a bridge too far. Illawarra extended the margin to as many as 23 points with two minutes remaining and finished with 6.5 of a possible seven NBL Cup points with wins in the final three quarters plus a tied opening frame.

Sydney shot the ball at just 37% from the field for the game, were 8 of 24 from three-point range and just one game after an historically excellent free throw shooting performance against the South East Melbourne Phoenix. 

Dejan Vasiljevic had 12 points to lead the Kings but was the only man in purple and gold to hit for double figures in points on a night where very little went right for Sydney.

Brydens Lawyers Sydney Kings Head Coach Adam Forde was a disappointed man in the post-game press conference after his team suffered its first loss by double figures in NBL21.

“That was just a real bad beat,” Coach Forde admitted.

“Our rotations weren’t great in the first half, and we addressed that, but it just didn’t get any better.”

“We looked fatigued, we just looked out of sorts, and everybody was guilty of it.”

“They just opened up the floodgates in the third quarter and we just got run over.”

On a positive note, import Jarell Martin made his long-awaited return from injury and finished with six points and four rebounds in just 12 minutes, showing some good signs early with a pair of buckets in the opening two minutes of the game.

The big man moved well and provided a much-needed target in the low post, and although he was held out of the second half with an eye towards the Kings’ busy schedule over the next couple of weeks, he will be much better for the run.

“He was capped at 12 minutes and he only did his first competitive five-on-five on Tuesday,” Coach Forde said.

“We’re looking at the Brisbane game on the weekend, then we’ve got a double header at home the following week, then potentially we get Perth the week after that.”

“Trust me, I was the first person who wanted to put him back in there, but the reality is we couldn’t. I’m looking forward to him getting more minutes.”

Sydney’s final game in the NBL Cup is on Saturday night against the Brisbane Bullets at John Cain Arena. Tipoff is at 5:30pm AEDT and the game will be broadcast on SBS Viceland, SBS On Demand and NBL.TV.

Rise With Us Sydney.

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 89 (Froling 20, Harvey 17, Jessup 15)
BRYDENS LAWYERS SYDNEY KINGS 69 (Vasiljevic 12, Moller 9, Vodanovich 8, Bruce 8) at John Cain Arena, Melbourne.

BOXSCORE