Heartland Hustle: Phoenix Looking to Bounce Back Against the Hawks

Both the Phoenix and the Hawks will be looking to bounce back from their losses to the Wildcats and Breakers respectively, as they both search to get back on the winner’s list.

The Hawks will be coming off a five-day break, while it will be a test for Phoenix after playing Saturday night, still missing four key players and having to travel to Wollongong.

Check out the latest from both sides.

(The last time the two sides met was during the NBL Blitz in the pre-season.)

Key Details

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 6-5 (4th) v South East Melbourne Phoenix 6-3 (3rd)

Where: WIN Entertainment Centre

When: Monday 7 February, 7:30pm AEDT

Watch on ESPN via Kayo or Foxtel

The Teams

Phoenix

Phoenix felt the loss four key players last night and will need to again rely heavily on the established stars still in the team while getting key contributions from the likes of Lachlan Barker.

Dane Pineau, Cam Gliddon, Kyle Adnam and Reuben Te Rangi will again miss due to Covid protocols and will be replaced in the side by Tristan Forsyth, Lachlan Barker, Owen Foxwell and Koen Sapwell as covid replacement players once again.

Head coach Simon Mitchell will also miss the game due to Covid protocols, with Judd Flavell again stepping up into the head coach role.

Hawks

The Hawks will go into the game unchanged.

(Zhou Qi will be hoping to have a better game than Saturday night.)

Players to Watch

Zhou Qi v Duop Reath

With 5cm difference between the two centres, the two big men will battle it out in the paint.

Both players lead their teams in blocks per game with Zhou leading the league.

Both players had quiet nights last start and will be looking to bounce back, early foul trouble limited Zhou to just four points, four rebounds and one block.

Last 5

Phoenix: LWWWL

Hawks: LWLWL

The Stats

Phoenix
Points: M Creek, 22ppg (#2 in NBL)
Rebounds: B Ashley, 7.75rpg
Assists: X Munford, 4.11apg
Blocks: Z Qi, 3.14bpg (#1 in NBL)
Steals: M Creek, 1.89spg

Hawks
Points: T Harvey, 16.55ppg
Rebounds: S Froling, 9.18rpg
Assists: T Harvey, 3.27apg
Blocks: D Reath, 1.45bpg
Steals: T Harvey, 2spg (#1 in NBL)

The History

Regular Season Head-to-Head: 7 – 1

South East Melbourne Phoenix – Illawarra Hawks

Last time out – NBL Blitz

Phoenix 112 – 116 Hawks

Phoenix
Te Rangi 18p
Zhou 17p
Adnam 16

Hawks
Jessup 27p
White 19p
Harvey 17p

(Phoenix will be hoping to recover quickly with only having a one-day break.)

Recap

The last time these sides met was during pre-season which saw the Hawks take the win by 4-points. Justinian Jessup and Isaac White were the difference that night hitting a combined 12 three-pointers.

Reuben Te Rangi was the leading scorer for the Phoenix with 18 points, four rebounds, and two assists while Kyle Adnam contributed 16 points and 12 assist, while Mitch Creek missed the hit-out due to ankle injury precaution.

Phoenix will be coming off a one-day break compared to the Hawks with five-days to prepare for the game. The boys from the South East will be hoping to recover quickly from Saturday night’s loss.

Quotes

“We have to look after the basketball that’s for sure, we can’t have wasted possessions and gift the ball to the opposition. We got to tidy up the rebounds, it’s not rocket science for us as it’s going to be such an easy review for this one…And obviously going into Illawarra they’ve got shooters on the floor as well, they obviously got Tyler Harvey who is a handful, we got to make sure we are all on board with that and in terms of the scout. But basically, I am looking at the possession game, rebounds, and turnovers, tighten up those two areas and we’ll be okay.
-Phoenix Stand-In Coach, Judd Flavell

“We got a top three team coming into our place, they got guys that are playing really well. They got an MVP candidate in Mitch Creek that we will have to do a job on, and they got bunch of guys around him that do an exceptional job. We got to get back, we got to put this one behind us and we got to figure out how to go back home and get a win.”
-Hawks Guard, Xavier Rathan-Mayes

Phoenix Media (7/2/22)