Harvey heroics not quite enough for Hawks

Tyler Harvey was at his brilliant best and JaVale McGee was impressive, but it wasn’t quite enough for the Illawarra Hawks with the G League United scoring the 100-94 win in Singapore at the FIBA Intercontinental Cup.

The Hawks played an overtime thriller against Flamengo from Brazil on Friday night to begin the tournament of champions and ended up losing by two points after a tremendous contest.

The G League United, meanwhile, won their own two-point thriller against that same Flamengo team back on Thursday so it shaped as a fascinating Saturday contest between the two.

It proved to be another tremendous contest but in the end it was the G League United who had enough of the answers to score the six-point victory to advance to Sunday's championship game.

The Hawks might not have won but there was still plenty to like from the defending NBL champions with Tyler Harvey outstanding with an especially efficient performance.

He finished with 32 points and two steals while shooting 11/16 from the field, 5/8 from three-point territory and 5/7 at the foul line.

Three-time NBA champion JaVale McGee looks ready to have a serious impact in the NBL too with another 13 points, 10 rebounds and two blocked shots in his 25 minutes.

Todd Blanchfield also had 16 points and eight rebounds for Illawarra, Jaquori McLaughlin 12 points, five boards and five assists, and Harry Froling six points and three rebounds.

Jaden Shackleford finished with 26 points with 5/10 from deep for the G League United with Chasson Randle adding 23 points and four assists, and Feron Hunt 21 points and eight rebounds.

Coming off the heartbreaking loss in overtime the night before to Flamengo, the Hawks made the flying start with the first seven points of the game starting with a three ball to Jaquori McLaughlin before JaVale McGee hit the next four.

The G League team responded and ended up working on top shortly before quarter-time but it was Illawarra leading 25-24 after one thanks to a triple on the buzzer from Tyler Harvey.

Harvey hit another three-pointer early in the second term to restore Illawarra to the lead as well but three successive makes from behind the arc from G League United saw them open up a seven-point lead.

On the back of that, it was the G League outfit still leading 51-45 by the half-time break and that lead did get out to as much as eight in the third quarter, but the Hawks were keeping themselves in touch.

That included a late triple from Todd Blanchfield that brought it back to a three-point game and then by three quarter-time it was the G League United leading by five.

Harvey scored five quick points to start the fourth quarter to bring the Hawks back within two points and when he knocked down another from downtown, suddenly the scores were all level with six minutes to play.

The G League United ended up having the answers, though, from there to go on and score the six-point victory.

FIBA INTERCONTINENTAL CUP 2025

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 94 (Harvey 32, Blanchfield 16, McGee 13)

NBA G LEAGUE UNITED 100 (Shackleford 26, Randle 23, Hunt 21)

BOX SCORE