Harvey fires Hawks to first 'Gong win under Goorj

Their return home to the 'Gong didn’t quite start off without a hitch but Tyler Harvey soon blew the Brisbane Bullets away and his Illawarra Hawks teammates came along for the ride in Monday's 96-72 win.

Illawarra was back at the WIN Entertainment Centre for just their second home game of the season to date. But it didn’t start smoothly with a backboard issue during warm ups pre-game forcing a half-hour delay to the tip-off on Monday night.

But once the game got going, Harvey was simply unstoppable on his way to nailing 7/9 from three-point range and scoring 23 points in the first half alone. 

That helped the Hawks build a 27-point lead and while Harvey didn’t see out the game after rolling an ankle, and Jason Cadee inspired a late Bullets run to get back within 12, Illawarra wouldn’t be denied. 

Delighted to be back home, the Hawks closed out the game on a 12-0 run to win by 24 and to celebrate their Wollongong homecoming in style.

The Hawks' last home game was back before the NBL Cup on February 10 and that was a loss to Melbourne United so this win over the Bullets was their first home victory since New Year's Eve of 2019 against the Sydney Kings.

Harvey put on quite the spectacular show in his first home win for the Hawks finishing with 28 points and three assists while knocking down 8/10 from deep.

He had plenty of help too with Cam Bairstow delivering 12 points and five rebounds, Deng Adel 11 points, 11 rebounds and six assists, Emmett Naar 11 points and five assists, and Sam Froling eight points and four rebounds.

Justin Simon was tremendous too not only with nine points and six rebounds but his defence that was a big part in limiting Nathan Sobey to just 11 points on 5/14 shooting and without a three-pointer from six attempts.

Hawks coach Brian Goorjian couldn’t speak more highly of the efforts of Harvey to help calm the nerves he was feeling coming into the game.

"Tyler's right there with the top guards in this league with his all-round play and ability to score the ball, his ability to run the team and he's just a great person," Goorjian said.

"Through all this adversity that we've had this year with it being his first year in the league, he's been so impressive and tonight again having our own rings and a comfort feeling really helped him shoot the ball well. He wanted this thing bad tonight and I think the team did. 

"We were desperate out there and I don’t remember being this nervous before a game, and I didn’t want to feel like this, but leading into this game just after our last two losses, and starting this home stand, it was a really important game. 

"Tyler led us from the front and he didn’t come out with an ankle, it was a back spasm and that'll settle down and he'll be right for the next game."

Jason Cadee got going late for Brisbane to top-score with 17 points while hitting 4/7 from three-point land. Harry Froling had 12 points and seven rebounds but also went 5/18 from the floor.

Tanner Krebs scored 11 points but the Bullets can't get back import pair Lamar Patterson and Vic Law quickly enough.

Brisbane coach Andrej Lemanis wasn’t making excuses, but saw plenty of reasons for why his team started how they did.

"Every time you lose it's disappointing and it always sounds like you're making excuses, but there's some certain facts that need to at least be considered coming into today," Lemanis said.

"Every team in this season is going to have their periods where they are interrupted and have some challenges, and things to overcome. 

"We're in another little patch here with players out and over the last two weeks we've dealt with a whole bunch of illness, and tonight we played a team that was fully load including three imports and we didn't have either of our two imports. 

"On the back of playing the other night, we came down yesterday and weren’t allowed to have our scheduled practice because of the COVID outbreak in Brisbane. 

"Then with the escalation, we weren’t allowed to have our Shootaround so we just sat in the hotel all day. What you saw in the first half tonight was a product of many things and that contributed certainly."

Following the half-hour delay to the game, Anthony Drmic took Brisbane's first four shots all from downtown to give the visitors a 6-0 start when he hit two of them. 

But then Tyler Harvey dropped his own triple, and Justin Simon hit five quick points and Sam Froling the next four to put Illawarra up 12-6. Brisbane responded with the next seven points before the Hawks went on their own 8-0 run, and the first quarter ended with the home side up 28-20.

Harvey knocked down another four threes in just over five minutes of the second period and suddenly the Hawks' lead was out to 21. Yet another three to Harvey to give him seven for the half and then one from Cam Bairstow, and a buzzer-beater from Simon saw Illawarra in control at the break up 54-34.

Harvey nailed his eighth triple of the game to start the second half and when AJ Ogilvy scored inside, Illawarra held a game-high 27-point edge. 

The margin was still 22 by three quarter-time and even though three triples from Jason Cadee saw Brisbane just 12 down with 3:55 remaining, the Hawks steadied impressively with a 12-0 stretch that started with an Emmett Naar three-point play and ended with his triple for the 24-point win.

The Hawks remain at home to host the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Thursday while the Bullets' scheduled game on Friday with the Phoenix won't be happening due to the three-day lockdown in Brisbane.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 11

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 96 (Harvey 28, Bairstow 12, Naar 11, Adel 11)

BRISBANE BULLETS 72 (Cadee 17, Froling 12, Krebs 11, Sobey 11) 

BOX SCORE