The Illawarra Hawks defeated competition leaders Melbourne United 102-87 at the Sandpit, recording their third straight win.
Despite question marks over their defence and rebounding, the Hawks did what they do best. They shot the lights out of the ball, they hit 51 per cent of their field goals, including 50 per cent from the three point line.
“We obviously showed that we can compete with them, and I don’t think we need to adjust anything we do to suit any other team; we just need to play our brand of basketball,” man of the match AJ Ogilvy said.
Kevin Lisch showed why he is one of the most valuable guards in the NBL, top scoring with 26 points and working like a terrier in defence.
For Hawks centre AJ Ogilvy this game against the best defensive and rebounding side in the league was always going to be a challenge.
“The win’s the best thing; if I had that stat-line and we lose, it means nothing,” Ogilvy said.
“For me it’s all about trying to find a way to contribute, we got guys like Kirk (Penney) and Kev (Lisch) who shot the hell out of the ball, everyone was hitting threes. I didn’t need to score points I just wanted to find a way to contribute and so I did it on defence.”
Ogilvy grabbed another double-double, scoring 15 and grabbing 12 boards.
The hulking centre worked hard on the defensive end as he registered an impressive four steals and six blocks.
Hawks coach Rob Beveridge lauded the hulking centre, “He (Ogilvy) is the best big man I’ve ever coached.”
“His overall game offense and defence is just outstanding, tonight he just showed how good he was.”
It did not take long for both sides to heat up with 10 three pointers sunk in the first quarter alone.
The Hawks started to kick away late in the second quarter as Kevin Lisch had the hot hand, lighting up the scoreboard in the first half with 23 points, including three from beyond the arc.
Illawarra threatened to blow out Melbourne early in the second half as the away side came out of the sheds cold, hitting brick after brick to trailing by 25 at one stage.
A United fightback was inevitable and slowly but surely Melbourne started to close the gap, with some pin point shooting from Chris Goulding, who finished with 25 points, including four threes.
United got to within four at one stage as the home fans started to get nervous, two three-pointers in a row were enough to break Melbourne’s back as Illawarra registered their seventh win of the season.
“I just tried to get them to re-focus, it was probably on defensive side of things, we were getting a bit sloppy, a bit loose,” Beveridge said.
“I thought we were too passive in that time…we have to play that aggressive mindset, be active with the hands and get in the lanes; making everything tough for them.”
Perhaps what was most alarming for United coach Dean Demopoulos was the 17 turnovers and 11 offensive rebounds United had conceded in the first half.
For a team which prides itself on its rebounding and ball control, they were at times careless with the ball and vulnerable on the glass.
“We just gave the ball up too many times, they (Illawarra) did a good job defensively containing us, I thought we got a little emotional at times,” Demopoulous said.
Despite still sitting in first place thanks to winning their first nine matches, Melbourne have struggled in recent weeks with four losses in their past five games.
“We were fortunate to get off to a good start, we’ve hit a snag right now and this is where we find out what we’re building towards,” Demopoulos said.
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