Hawks Finally Get Reward

Tuesday, December 6, 2022

The sweet taste of victory has finally returned for the Illawarra Hawks, after they snapped their nine-game losing streak on Monday night.

The sweet taste of victory has finally returned for the Illawarra Hawks after they snapped their nine-game losing streak on Monday night.

The Hawks have suffered near constant dissapointments this season. From multiple high-profile injuries, to blowouts, to double-overtime losses, they've sat bottom of the ladder for almost the entirety of NBL23 so far.

However, Illawarra showed up in front of their home crowd on Monday night to secure a 93-79 win against Melbourne United, just its second win of the season and its first since early October.

Coach Jacob Jackomas was unsurprisingly relieved with the result, explaining how happy he is that the players have been rewarded after they’ve helped maintain a positivity around the club.

“Whatever your record is you’ve got to take one game at a time and that’s what we’ll do, what we’re trying to do is perform like that every game,” Jackomas said.

“They’re (the players) good human beings, they’re putting in the work and I’m just really happy for them that they can get a little bit rewarded tonight.

“With any team in the league right now, you’re just trying to play a certain way.

“This league is brutal, and it’s not to say is just because now we have three Americans it’s going to turn around for us, we actually had to play a very good and very desperate ball club today and we had to do everything correctly.

“Everything was clicking today and we took advantage of that.”

The Hawks not only led the game at every change against Melbourne, but they outscored their opposition in each quarter to extend their lead as the game went on.

Co-Captain Sam Froling was pivotal as he recorded a career high 29 points along with nine rebounds for the Hawks.

“We had to be desperate tonight and I put a bit of that on my shoulders and to see two free throws go down, two three-balls go down you start to feel pretty good about yourself,” Froling said.

“I’ve always had confidence in myself, this is a new position for me as a leader of the group and I’m still learning, still building, and I still want to get better as a basketball player as well.

“At the end of the day when we’re on the court I back myself and I feel pretty good and I know that we have such a good group of guys, they don’t make it hard to lead at all, I say one thing to them and they listen and they can reciprocate and say something back.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Froling Lifts Hawks to Drought Breaking Win ?<br><br>Check out the <a href="https://twitter.com/HungryJacksAU?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HungryJacksAU</a> highlights from last nights game. <a href="https://t.co/kqqkrjGFYt">pic.twitter.com/kqqkrjGFYt</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1599886333392076801?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 5, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Froling also credited his teammates for stepping up in big moments.

“Contributions from everyone tonight was massive, Deng (Deng) had one of his best games of the season, (Michael Frazier II) slots in and he does so much for us, Wani (Swaka Lo Buluk), nothing on the stat sheet but a plus 17 so I think it’s a credit to our group and the fight that we showed tonight,” he said.

The Hawks will have another chance at victory on Thursday against the South East Melbourne Phoenix at 7:30pm AEDT.