'Relieved' Hawks rise through internal pressure

Saturday, October 28, 2023

Jacob Jackomas wants the "relief" of victory to filter out of the Illawarra Hawks.

The overwhelming emotion in the WIN Entertainment Centre last night was relief. Relief the Hawks had stopped their three-game losing skid, and relief that Tyler Harvey bounced back from his own poor run of form in a massive way.

Illawarra took the game by the scruff of the neck in the first quarter, before being systematically pegged back by the Taipans. A Patrick Miller two put Cairns up with just a few seconds left, but Harvey hit a deep, contested three with less than a second remaining to drag his side to victory.

The victory has moved the Hawks off the bottom of the ladder at the expense of New Zealand – who suffered a defeat to Adelaide in Thursday night’s other clash.

“I think there’s a little bit of pressure created from the group, created from myself and created from the fans – just because of what happened last year – so it is a bit of a relief,” Jackomas said post-game.

“We need to move onto being a basketball team now, not the team that’s relieved to win.

“There were some lapses tonight and it didn’t punish us as much, but we needed something pretty special at the end of the game to win. I’m really happy, I’m really happy for the guys, I’m really happy for the fans, I thought the crowd was great today.

“We’re a good basketball team, we should be winning basketball games and hopefully we can get whatever this thing is off our back and start winning games.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">TYLER. HARVEY.<br><br>THAT'S GAME. <a href="https://t.co/axjDhicK6r">pic.twitter.com/axjDhicK6r</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1717489800482328587?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 26, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

While Gary Clark has been something of a lone beacon in the dark for Illawarra in its past few games, it was the side’s stars of last season who stood up and played starring roles in the win over the Taipans.

Aside from Harvey’s incredible game-winner, Sam Froling dominated Cairns’ crop of bigs to end the game with 16 points and 13 rebounds, and opened the clash with a monster dunk over Lat Mayen.

While the entire Hawks unit has come under criticism over recent weeks, Jackomas says the quality performances of Harvey and Froling offered a stark reminder of their ability.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">TYLER. HARVEY.<br><br>THAT'S GAME. <a href="https://t.co/axjDhicK6r">pic.twitter.com/axjDhicK6r</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1717489800482328587?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 26, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“I turned around to my assistants and said that’s why we have him – in that space he always gives us a chance,” Jackomas said of Harvey’s game-winner.

“I’m happy for him too, he takes a lot of the brunt of the blame and it’s good people can be reminded how special he is at the end of the clock.

“I’m really happy for him because I think a lot of people take the blame in this thing.

“Sam’s one of them and he had a great game, Tyler had a great shot, I’m glad they were able to, not prove anyone wrong, but be celebrated at a stage in that way.”

Illawarra next face Melbourne United on Sunday, October 29 – live and free on ESPN via Kayo Freebies, 10 Peach and 10play.