Hawks demolish Bullets to stay alive

The Illawarra Hawks have strung wins together and are building ominously when they need to most to keep themselves in the race for sixth position after blowing away the Bullets in Brisbane 113-75.

The Hawks left themselves plenty of work to do to keep themselves with a shot at defending their championship sitting at 8-16 with nine games left in their season.

However, with teams above them Tasmania and New Zealand suffering some shock injury, the door potentially remains open for the Hawks and they did begin to find some momentum beating the JackJumpers on Saturday.

They then backed that up on Monday night at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre taking full advantage of the down and out Bullets to romp to the 38-point victory.

Brisbane started off encouragingly to lead 7-6 early but Hawks coach Justin Tatum switched out all five starters and his second unit scored 10 quick unanswered points, and Illawarra never looked back from there.

The Hawks put up 33 points in the second quarter to be leading 55-31 at half-time and then another 41 in the third to be on top 96-52 by three quarter-time.

To the Bullets' credit they did score the opening eight points of the final term, but the Hawks soon steadied to improve to 10-16 on the season just behind the 10-17 Breakers and 12-16 JackJumpers.

The most encouraging aspect of the performance once again for the Hawks was that their second unit is every bit as productive as their starting group.

By the end of the game, the Hawks got 78 of their 113 from the bench led by Tyler Harvey with 22 with six rebounds and five assists.

Davo Hickey also had 17 points and seven assists, Sam Froling 14 points, five rebounds and five assists, Daniel Grida 13 points, three boards and two steals, and Todd Blanchfield 10 points and five rebounds.

Three of their starters, Wani Swaka Lo Buluk, Biwali Bayles and Mason Peatling, combined for just two points while JaVale McGee had 18 points and 10 rebounds, and QJ Peterson 15 points and four assists with 3/4 three-point shooting.

Despite the 38-point scoreline, the Bullets despite being significantly outplayed did keep on competing including winning the final quarter with 23 points to 17 even with sliding to an eighth straight defeat to remain in last place.

Hunter Maldonado again top-scored for Brisbane with 20 points and four assists with Taine Murray adding 14 points, six rebounds and five assists, Mitch Norton 12 points, three assists and two steals, and Terry Taylor 10 points and six rebounds.

The Bullets now back up quickly with an Ignite Cup match up against the league-leading Adelaide 36ers on Wednesday night on the Gold Coast with the Hawks taking on the rampant Sydney Kings on Thursday at Qudos Bank Arena.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2025/26 – PRIDE ROUND

BRISBANE BULLETS 75 (Maldonado 20, Murray 14, Norton 12)

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 113 (Harvey 22, McGee 18, Hickey 17)

BOX SCORE