Kings fall to Hawks in Freeway Series epic

By Matt McQuade

Result: Illawarra Hawks 97 Brydens Lawyers Sydney Kings 89

Stats that matter: Kings 50 points in the paint; Kings 17 offensive rebounds; Hawks 12 three pointers; Hawks 53.4% FG

Kings MVP: Hard to separate Jarell Martin and Xavier Cooks, who both carried an enormous load.

Turning Point: A pair of baskets from Hawks’ guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes gave the Hawks a nine-point lead with less than three minutes left.

The game was over when: Tyler Harvey scored with a minute left to make it a ten-point Hawks’ advantage.

Trending in the right direction: Jaylen Adams is a special talent who will only get better.

In another outstanding chapter of one of the biggest rivalries in the National Basketball League, the Brydens Lawyers Sydney Kings showed tremendous heart in succumbing to the Illawarra Hawks 97-89 on Thursday night at the WIN Entertainment Centre in Wollongong.

Already significantly undermanned with Biwali Bayles, Angus Glover, Makur Maker and Jordan Hunter all unavailable, the Kings suffered a body blow when import R.J. Hunter, playing his first game since Round Two, twisted his knee awkwardly within his first minute of action and fell to the floor in obvious pain.

He would play no further part in the game and his short-term future is uncertain, with scans likely to determine the severity of the injury.

But to their immense credit, the purple and gold never backed down from the fight, even stunning the small but vocal crowd with the first 11 points of the game and continually responding through the first three quarters to every run the Hawks made.

However, the initial thoughts of Head Coach Chase Buford were with his luckless import, who was expected to make a significant contribution this season.

“Oh, I feel for him,” Coach Buford said.

“I don’t want to speculate on what happened but it seems serious.”

“He really is a great kid; for our group he’s been fun to be around. He’s had some (bad) luck that got (worse).”

In his absence, the rest of the Kings stepped up, in yet another example of the next man up mentality.

From the outstanding Wani Swaka Lo Buluk (17 points, three rebounds), who made his opening six shots and played stellar defence all night; to Jarell Martin (23 points, 10 rebounds) and his constant aggression, added to the guts and heart of Xavier Cooks (16 points, 14 rebounds), who had a couple of massive dunks despite being clearly gassed and was nothing less than relentless at both ends of the floor, restricting Hawks’ forward Duop Reath to just six points.

Even Shaun Bruce, who had only two points, had one of the plays of the game in the second quarter when he showed remarkable hustle in diving on the floor to grab a contested loose ball then whipped a long pass to Cooks for the two-hand jam.

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It was but one of many great plays made in what was a tremendous battle between two quality teams; a game with four ties and no less than 14 lead changes that featured multiple runs on both sides.

Sydney led 78-75 after three quarters after trailing Illawarra by one at intermission and were up 84-83 with less than seven minutes remaining, despite being horrifically undermanned.

But in the end, the lack of healthy bodies told and Illawarra wore them down, led by big man Sam Froling (27 points, nine rebounds, two steals) who dominated the final period with eight crucial points as the Hawks closed the game with a 14-5 spurt and held the Kings to just 11 points in the final ten minutes.

“The only run we really didn’t have an answer for was the last one,” Coach Buford said.

“They kicked our butts for the last three to four minutes of the game, credit to them.”

“They made shots all night, and they executed down the stretch where we definitely did not.”

“It was a really high-level game; really good stuff from both squads.”

On a positive note for the Kings, import point guard Jaylen Adams made his first appearance since injuring his ankle late last year and showed the poise, class and talent he possesses in spades.

Despite not shooting the ball as well as he would have liked, Jaylen still finished with 14 points and eight assists and looked every bit the star the club envisaged when they signed him in the offseason.

“I’m so accustomed to a Jaylen Adams that’s so much better than what you saw tonight,” Coach Buford said.

“I know he’s going to come good and be better and better as we go on.”

“He had eight assists tonight and I thought he could have had a few more. He didn’t shoot the ball well tonight and he can play better, but we’re excited to have him back in the line-up.

Sydney shot the ball at 41.7% from the field, were eight of 24 from three-point range and made 11 of 14 foul shots. They outrebounded the Hawks 46-42, forced 12 turnovers and had 50 points in the paint.

The Kings will now head home for the first time since Boxing Day last year to take on the New Zealand Breakers at Qudos Bank Arena this Sunday afternoon. Tipoff is scheduled for 3:00pm and tickets are available via Ticketek.

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ILLAWARRA HAWKS 97 (S. Froling 27, Harvey 23, Rathan-Mayes 16)
BRYDENS LAWYERS SYDNEY KINGS 89 (Martin 23, Swaka Lo Buluk 17, Cooks 16) at WIN Entertainment Centre.

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