Bullets win thriller at home over Hawks

It wasn’t without its heart stopping moments late once again, but the Brisbane Bullets held firm at home to the Illawarra Hawks on Sunday afternoon to win 78-77 to make it the perfect return weekend.

The Bullets came into Round 9 of the NBL after the FIBA international window having played some impressive basketball leading into the break, but having not quite been able to finish the job in the last three games.

Then on Friday night in Cairns, Brisbane beat the Taipans for the first time in 10 attempts holding on despite a fast finish from the Snakes and then were forced to fight to the death at Nissan Arena against the Hawks on Sunday.

The Bullets sent the local fans home happy after a thrilling encounter with both teams going toe for toe for the majority of the afternoon.

In the end, a late 5-0 run for the Bullets from Tyrell Harrison, Sam McDaniel and Nathan Sobey, and then a strong defensive effort on the last possession by Harrison enabled Brisbane to claim the one-point win and improve to 7-7 on the season as a result.

The Bullets had a good shooting game from the field going at 50 per cent but at the free-throw line struggled with just 11/23 at 47 per cent, including making just 4/14 in the first half.

With Illawarra going 17/20 in contrast it kept things close, but Brisbane did plenty right including Chris Smith again top-scoring with 16 points on 4/7 three-point shooting.

Sam McDaniel added 11 points with Aron Baynes adding 10 points and four rebounds, and Tyrell Harrison 10 points, eight boards and two crucial blocked shots.

Isaac White had an important nine points, three rebounds and two assists with Nathan Sobey perhaps having the best four-shot performance of his 247-game NBL career with eight points, seven rebounds and six assists.

Mitch Norton added five points and three rebounds, DJ Mitchell four points, four boards and three assists having started in the absence of Josh Bannan, and Shannon Scott four points and four assists.

Justin Robinson and Gary Clark both scored 13 points for the Hawks, Sam Froling 11 and Hyunjung Lee 10.

The Bullets opened the game well with the first four points and when Chris Smith hit the floor and continued his recent hot shooting form with a pair of three-pointers, the home team was leading 18-12.

Isaac White soon hit from downtown too and then Smith hit a third of the opening period, and that helped Brisbane lead narrowly 28-26 by the end of one.

Illawarra opened the second quarter strongly with a pair of three balls to Hyunjung Lee, but after a quick timeout the Bullets responded starting with the fourth triple of the half from Smith.

The Bullets were soon back on top thanks to Tyrell Harrison before Mitch Norton hit from three-point territory to stretch the advantage to four.

The Hawks weren’t going away, though, and Brisbane only clung to a one-point half-time lead thanks to a late bucket to Shannon Scott. While the Bullets were shooting at 62 per cent from the field for the half, going 4/14 at the foul line opposed to 14/15 from the Hawks proved costly.

Brisbane started the second half strongly scoring eight of the first 10 points with the lead growing to as much as eight when White landed on another three-point attempt.

Illawarra stuck with it, though, and were back within four by three quarter-time with the visitors then grabbing the lead to start the final frame thanks to three-pointers from Justin Robinson and Mason Peatling.

Brisbane needed to respond and the home team did starting with Aron Baynes. White then scored on consecutive plays to level scores up, and then buckets to Harrison and Sam McDaniel had the Bullets in front by two.

Nathan Sobey stretched the lead to three at the foul line but with a timeout with 30 seconds to go, it was still just a one-point ball game.

It ended up coming down to the last possession for the Hawks and an impressive defensive stand with Harrison holding his ground to deny Gary Clark for Illawarra meant Brisbane held on for the one-point win to make it a perfect return weekend.

The Bullets now have a run of three road games leading into Christmas starting in Melbourne against Melbourne United next Sunday. The run of Sunday games continues the following week against the Cairns Taipans and then on New Year's Eve to the Adelaide 36ers.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 9

BRISBANE BULLETS 78 (Smith 16, McDaniel 11, Harrison 10, Baynes 10)

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 77 (Robinson 13, Clark 13, Froling 10)

BOX SCORE