Illawarra have finally put consecutive wins together in NBL27, and their 107–95 victory over Cairns on Thursday, 5 November, offered a convincing answer to a familiar question: can the Hawks keep scoring when the opposition's early shooting catches fire? At the Cairns Convention Centre, they didn't just survive the Taipans' extraordinary opening burst. They steadily took the game away from them.
Cairns led 62–61 at half-time after the teams combined for 19 three-pointers and 123 points. It was the sort of opening that can turn a contest into a shooting lottery. Instead, Illawarra's second-half defence changed the arithmetic. Cairns managed only 33 points after the break, shooting 13-of-38 from the floor and 2-of-14 from deep. The Hawks won the third quarter 26–20, then pushed the margin into double figures in the fourth. The NBL's official match report confirms the 107–95 final and the decisive shooting split.
Makur Maker was central to that turnaround, finishing with 24 points, nine rebounds and two blocks on 9-of-14 shooting. He had already scored 18 by half-time, including two triples in the second period, so this wasn't simply a late clean-up job. His scoring gave Illawarra an inside-out threat while the perimeter players kept the floor spread. Tyler Harvey hit five of eight threes for 19 points, while Kelan Martin added 19 and Milton Doyle supplied 18 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals. Four players carrying that much scoring weight made the Hawks harder to pin to one matchup.
For Cairns, Keanu Pinder had 21 points and eight rebounds but picked up a fourth foul in the third quarter. Jack McVeigh scored 20 with seven assists, yet didn't score in the final period. That contrast tells the story of the second half better than the early three-point fireworks: the Taipans had multiple ways to create shots, but couldn't sustain their execution once Illawarra tightened the contest. The Hawks had more answers when the game slowed.
The result moved Illawarra to 4–8 and gave the club its first back-to-back wins of the season, following its victory in Perth. Cairns slipped to 6–6 after a second straight defeat. Those records don't put the teams in the same position, but they make the direction of travel worth watching. Illawarra have started turning individual scoring talent into a more coherent team performance; Cairns need to rediscover the defensive resistance that stops a hot first half becoming an empty result.
The next test comes quickly. The NBL's Round 8 fixture preview placed the Cairns game at the start of a demanding stretch, and Illawarra travel on to face Adelaide on Saturday, 7 November. Maker's activity and the balance between Harvey, Martin and Doyle give the Hawks a credible attacking foundation. More importantly, Thursday showed they can win a game by changing its rhythm rather than simply trying to outshoot the other side. That's a far more useful sign of progress than one spectacular quarter.
Comments