Hawks go fourth with victory over Bullets

It was a game waiting for one team to take charge and the Illawarra Hawks did exactly that in the fourth quarter on the way to a crucial 89-76 win over the Brisbane Bullets to go up to fourth in the NBL.

With fourth position, at least for now, the prize for the winner, the stakes were high at WIN Entertainment Centre and neither team could ever quite break free until the Hawks scored 23 of the game's final 29 points.

The excitement did build briefly in the second quarter when Next Stars and future NBA draftees, AJ Johnson and Rocco Zikarsky, traded thunderous slams.

That included Illawarra's Johnson's being right over Brisbane seven-footer Zikarsky.

Outside of that it was a grind of a contest for much of the evening with the Hawks leading 22-18 at quarter-time before things opened up in the second period with a combined 54 points for Illawarra to lead 50-44 at the break.

Brisbane took charge in the third period holding the Hawks to just 12 points to lead by four going into the fourth.

Illawarra turned the tide again to control the final period including going on a 12-2 run which saw them turn a four-point deficit into a six-point lead.

The Hawks kept it going too and would finish the game holding the Bullets to six points in the final eight minutes for the eventual the 13-point win including scoring the last 11 points.

The Hawks (12-12) shot up to fourth spot as a result and it was a standout defensive job led by Wani Swaka Lo Buluk on Bullets captain Nathan Sobey that was key.

Sobey had just 11 points on 3-of-11 shooting with four turnovers.

Gary Clark again came up big for Illawarra with 19 points and 10 rebounds with import guard Justin Robinson continuing to enjoy coming off the bench with 16 points and five assists.

Sam Froling added 12 points and seven rebounds, and Tyler Harvey 10 points, three steals and three rebounds.

Hawks coach Justin Tatum liked the fighting spirit again from his team.

"It was good because we ended up winning the game and I saw my guys like Sam, GC and Tyler find a way and they were very verbal on the bench, and out on the floor," he said.

"I trust them guys and what they did was fight through adversity, and that's one thing we've been doing all season.

"As we keep improving with that, we come out with wins like this."

It was a tough loss for the now 12-14 Bullets who have just two games over the last two rounds remaining at home to Adelaide and away to New Zealand.

Brisbane shot just 38 per cent from the field with 4-of-22 from deep with Josh Bannan and Sam McDaniel joining Sobey on 11 points.

Tyrell Harrison also had 10 points and eight rebounds.

Bullets coach Justin Schueller was frustrated afterwards.

"It's just frustrating when we felt in the first half we weren't playing with our identity, but in the third quarter we came out and played that way," he said.

"We put ourselves in a position to go and get it, but it's just frustrating that we let that part slip starting with not executing an assignment to let Clark get that three, and that was ball game."

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 18

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 89 (Clark 19, Robinson 16, Froling 12)

BRISBANE BULLETS 76 (McDaniel 11, Sobey 11, Bannan 11)

BOX SCORE