Stifling Hawks defence shuts down 36ers

A three-quarter defensive masterclass led by Justin Simon with Tyler Harvey then nailing the game-winning shots has seen the Illawarra Hawks overcome the Adelaide 36ers 71-66 in Wollongong on Tuesday night.

It was the start of three straight home games for the Hawks at the WIN Entertainment Centre and they couldn’t have opened up any better. 

Despite Adelaide being the highest scoring team in the league over the last month, Illawarra forced them into 10 opening quarter turnovers and just 10 points while putting up 23 points themselves. 

However, Tony Crocker and Jack McVeigh sparked Adelaide's fight back in the second term to see the visitors up by four at the main break.

Illawarra was able to get back to its stifling defence in the second half, though, to get back into the game and with Adelaide ending the game with 24 turnovers as a result, the Hawks took advantage with three huge threes in the last five minutes from Tyler Harvey sealing the five-point win.

Take out the second quarter where Adelaide put up 28 points and the Hawks held the league's highest scoring team from the past month to 38 points over the other three quarters in an outstanding defensive performance.

It's a big win in the context of the season for Illawarra too as they join the third and fourth placed Sydney and South East Melbourne with 14-14 records with eight games remaining.

Harvey finished with 23 points and seven assists for Hawks while hitting 6/12 from downtown with AJ Ogilvy (eight points, six rebounds) and Sam Froling (six points, eight boards) strong up against the powerful Adelaide frontcourt.

Justin Simon's 12 points, six rebounds, five assists, three steals and two blocks only tell part the story of his influence on the game while Deng Deng added 10 points and nine boards.

Hawks coach Brian Goorjian was delighted in the way his group has found a way to create a new identity without Cam Bairstow and Deng Adel.

"I'm so proud of the team and we've figured it out with the way the season has unfolded. We went with the younger group and we had two marquee guys, and the two imports and you are going to have them there for those guys to play off," Goorjian said.

"That was going to be the balance of grooming some of these young guys and how we would roll offensively. Obviously that's happening and we had to figure out as a group what's our best option, and where the place is we can go to give us a chance to win. 

"We've had our issues and they've been permanent, but it started in the Sydney game to really pick up at the defensive end of the floor. 

"And in Tasmania we defended and kept New Zealand into the 60s after they had just beaten Perth, and tonight we had a team coming in playing for their lives with their full roster, and we got that done. 

"It's a first year group, it's a new culture we're trying to build and it's wonderful for this group to be playing in important games."

It's a significant blow for the 36ers who slip to 13-17 but with six games to go, they still have the door open just enough to make a run at the playoffs.

Tony Crocker (16 points, 5/7 from three) and Jack McVeigh (11 points, 3/5) were the two players to spark Adelaide offensively in the second quarter, but ultimately their five starters of Brandon Paul, Josh Giddey, Isaac Humphries, Daniel Johnson and Sunday Dech struggled.

As a fivesome, they scored just 32 points to go with 20 turnovers while shooting 11/38 from the field and 5/21 from three-point land.

Sixers coach Conner Henry was as frustrated after a game as he has been this season.

"We had 24 turnovers and in that second quarter, we handled their pressure and decision-making out of their pick and roll coverages," Henry said. 

"It was really good and we picked them apart, and went into half-time discussing exactly what would take place and how they would continue to come at us with their rotations off their pick and roll rotations. 

"We just didn’t make decisions off the initial slip ups, our bigs made some poor reads and so did our guards, and there's the game. We couldn’t handle their pressure."

It was a stunning opening quarter blitz from the Hawks starting with the defensive intensity and pressure created by Justin Simon forcing the 36ers into turnover after turnover.

Then up the other end, the Hawks broke away with a Tyler Harvey triple and then a 9-0 run that included a triple from Deng Deng. When Harvey hit another three ball and Deng beat the shot clock for a mid-range jumper, Illawarra was in a dominant 23-10 position.

The Hawks threw the challenge right down to the 36ers to respond, and did they ever answer the call starting with three-pointers from Brandon Paul, Tony Crocker and Jack McVeigh in the opening two minutes of the second term.

That turned into a 15-0 run as the Sixers claimed the lead and then extended their edge heading into half-time to be up 38-34 after 28 points to 11 in the quarter with Crocker and McVeigh combining for 17 points on 5/8 shooting from deep.

Illawarra got back on top defensively in the third quarter and with AJ Ogilvy scoring six quick points, and then then Simon and Deng leading a 7-0 run to close the term, the Hawks were up 54-52 by three quarter-time.

It was again Crocker and McVeigh who knocked down threes to start the fourth quarter, but the Hawks responded firstly with a triple from Harvey and then a three-point play from Justinian Jessup.

A spectacular Josh Giddey move and then three ball from Brandon Paul kept Adelaide in touch, but they just couldn’t execute and two more game-breaking threes from Harvey saw the Hawks win by five.

Adelaide remains on the road to take on the Sydney Kings on Sunday while the Hawks remain in the 'Gong to host the New Zealand Breakers on Saturday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 18

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 71 (Harvey 23, Simon 12, Deng 10)

ADELAIDE 36ERS 66 (Crocker 16, McVeigh 11, Johnson 9) 

BOX SCORE