On-fire Hawks leave Queensland a perfect 4-0

The Hawks finally return home and they do as the hottest team in the NBL and it doesn’t look to be a flash in the pan, they could well be the best team in the league after beating the Cairns Taipans 90-70 on Thursday.

The Hawks have been away from Wollongong since Boxing Day initially relocating to Albury before then heading to Tasmania, and now having settled in Queensland to play the opening four games of their NBL season against either the Taipans or Brisbane Bullets.

They went to a perfect 4-0 on the back of a dominant performance on Thursday night at the Cairns Pop-Up Arena and just like coach Brian Goorjian did in his last season in the NBL, he looks capable of turning a wooden spoon team into a title threat.

Back in 2008/09, Goorjian took over as coach at the South Dragons and turned a basket case into a championship team 12 months later. That was his last imprint on the NBL and now he is on track to do something similarly special at the Hawks.

And as they return home for the first time in 2021 for a week's break before playing the South East Melbourne Phoenix in Melbourne next Sunday, it's hard to argue that Goorjian hasn’t built a team made to succeed.

On Thursday night alone, import point guard Tyler Harvey was brilliant with 21 points on 5/7 shooting from deep while Next Star Justinian Jessup was dynamite with 19 points on 3/4 from downtown.

Justin Simon was terrific locking down on Cairns superstar Scott Machado and had seven points, eight rebounds, five assists and four steals while Sam Froling was impressive inside with 14 points and seven rebounds.

It was more than that though. AJ Ogilvy (six points, five rebounds), Isaac White (eight points) and Deng Deng (eight points, five rebounds) contributed well while Deng Adel got through his first game of the season and Cam Bairstow is still to come in.

Goorjian couldn’t have been happier to end this road run on such a high.

"We're talking a lot about how we are together and playing our definition of hard, and I keep talking to the team about that being a skill," Goorjian said.

"I thought this road trip hit its peak tonight as far as length and being under pressure, and you could see it at Shootaround. Everyone was a bit worn and we're all excited about going back to the 'Gong and putting on a home game in our hometown soon. 

"But tonight we just talked about the depth we have and the test was if we could handle these guys, and stay physically which is defending, rebounding and keeping them off the foul line. We seemed to be able to get better at what we needed to do as the game wore on."

As many positives as there are for the Hawks right now, things are tough for the Taipans. Coming into #NBL21 with such high hopes, they are 1-4 and on a four-game losing slide having played all five matches at home ahead of a game in Brisbane on Saturday.

Cam Oliver was superb in a losing effort for the Snakes with 20 points and 11 rebounds on a supremely efficient 8/11 shooting from the floor and 3/5 from beyond the arc.

Scott Machado still delivered 14 points and seven assists, Mirko Djeric 11 points and Fabijan Krslovic eight.

Taipans coach Mike Kelly was happy enough with the start but once the turnovers started to mount, that’s when he noticed the Hawks start to get rolling.

"I thought we did come out with great energy defensively and tried to put our stamp on it defensively," Kelly said.

"We just could not get rolling offensively and we were the first team to bend there. They made some shots to finish the quarter and then felt comfortable throughout after that."

Both teams found the going tough offensively early but the Hawks then got rolling starting with a Tyler Harvey three ball and then Justinian Jessup knocked down a pair of them before the break.

Isaac White opened the second quarter with another triple to give the Hawks a 16-0 run to go from being six down to 10 up in the blink of an eye.

The Hawks maintained that edge most of the rest of the half with Deng Deng providing a spark just before half-time with quickfire threes to see them lead 45-36 at the break.

The Hawks blew the game further open to start the second half too with another 11-2 run including a three ball from Harvey and a couple of mid-range knockdowns from captain AJ Ogilvy.

The Taipans did spark to life a little, though, and got back within six at three quarter-time thanks to a three-point play from Next Star Mojave King after throwing down the in-bounds pass from Jarrod Kenny.

The Hawks put the game to bed to open the fourth quarter, though, starting off with five quick points from Jessup. 

Harvey then drilled two quick threes and it was out to 16. Jessup then hit two more jumpers, Justin Simon scored and so did Ogilvy and suddenly the lead was out to 21 for the Hawks, and they would go on to win by 20 for a fourth straight win to open #NBL21 with the Taipans now on a four-game slide.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 3

CAIRNS TAIPANS 70 (Oliver 20, Machado 14, Djeric 11)

THE HAWKS 90 (Harvey 21, Jessup 19, Froling 14) 

BOX SCORE