Roar Guru
The Illawarra Hawks made it two from two in the second round of the NBL season, defeating the Sydney Kings 100-86 after a 21-point win over the New Zealand Breakers earlier in the week.
Oscar Foreman finished with a game-high 24 points for the Hawks, sinking six out of seven three-pointers and recording ten rebounds.
Julian Khazzouh scored 21 points for the home side but it wasn’t enough to get a win for the Kings as they slump to a 1-2 record after two rounds.
The Kings lead 53-52 at half time after the second quarter saw several lead changes. But the Hawks were in front by 6 at the final change and rode that out to a 14-point victory in the final term.
Final Score:
Sydney Kings 86
Illawarra Hawks 1000
The Sydney Kings host the Illawarra Hawks in round two of the 2015-2016 NBL season at Qantas Credit Union Arena looking to continue their winning form at home, while the Hawks look to grab their second victory of the season. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 5:30pm (AEDT).
The Hawks have been a tough team to play so far this year. Across their three games to date they have had two close losses against genuine competition heavyweights in the Cairns Taipans and Melbourne United – both away from home before they broke through for a win on Wednesday night against the Breakers 96-75.
The Sydney Kings got off to an impressive start to the season by belting the Cairns Taipans in Sydney last Saturday night. The 87-63 win was very impressive considering they were missing Josh Childress who is of course their star import player.
Childress also missed the Kings Thursday night game against the Townsville Crocodiles and remains in huge doubt for this home game against the Hawks.
The Kings were able to jump out of the blocks against the Taipans in round one to lead 29-15 at quarter time and continued to dominate the second quarter to go on to win easily. Big centre Julian Khazzouh had 22 points and 9 rebounds and was well supported from guard Jason Cadee with 19 points.
During the Hawks 21 point victory over the Breakers on Wednesday, Kirk Penney led the scoring with 36 and was well supported by AJ Ogilvy with 23 points, 10 rebounds and 4 steals. T
They have also been extremely competitive in both of their losses. The loss to the Taipans, 79-74 on Thursday had Jarrad Weeks and Kirk Penney top scoring with 12 points each, before they followed that up with a 93-81 loss to Melbourne United on Sunday at Hisense Arena with AJ Ogilvy scoring 20 points, Kirk Penney with 18 and Tim Coenraad finishing with 17.
The Hawks also hold a narrow 3-2 lead in the past five games against the Kings, and in recent times the team’s have been fairly evenly matched. It doesn’t look like it will be much different this time around.
Prediction: The Sydney Kings will get a home win against the Hawks although the Hawks will hang in for the most part and make it interesting. The Kings should have too much down the stretch though.
Kings by 12.
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