Shorthanded Bullets take it to Hawks

The loss of Casey Prather just before tip-off was just the blow the Brisbane Bullets could least afford and the league-leading Illawarra Hawks did take advantage for the eventual 121-87 win.

The Bullets arrived at the WIN Entertainment Centre on Monday night with the job ahead of them trying to snap a three-game losing run and continuing to battle a horror injury run with just about more players sidelined than suiting up.

Prather was the latest player to be ruled out with an ankle injury as he joined Tyrell Harrison, Rocco Zikarsky and Deng Adel sidelined along with Sam McDaniel, Jarred Bairstow and James Batemon already ruled out for the season.

Considering the players missing and then with Tohi Smith-Milner getting hurt early but playing on and others still playing despite carrying niggles, you couldn’t fault the competitive effort given by the Bullets.

Keandre Cook ended up top-scoring with 19 points and eight rebounds with Josh Bannan adding 15 points, seven boards and five assists, and Josh Adams 12 points, three rebounds and two assists.

Isaac White put up 11 points and three rebounds with captain Mitch Norton finishing with nine points, three boards and three assists, Smith-Milner six points and four rebounds, and Josh Kunen three points, two boards and two assists.

Tristan Devers made his first career start and had some encouraging moments with seven points and going 3/4 from the field in 14 minutes with Kye Savage also scoring five points late in his second NBL game he's scored in.

It was an impressive offensive performance from the Hawks as they set a record with 37 assists and shot 62 per cent as a team with Sam Froling scoring 17 points, Wani Swaka Lo Buluk 16, Mason Peatling 15, Lachlan Olbrich 14, Hyunjung Lee 12 and Tyler Harvey 10.

Tohi Smith-Milner stepped outside to open Brisbane's scoring for the game before Tristan Devers got on the board early after making his first career start.

The Bullets were doing well keeping pace with the Hawks early with another bucket to Keandre Cook and then a three ball to captain Mitch Norton, but the home team was scoring at will.

Illawarra ended up with 35 points in the first quarter to lead by 15 at quarter-time with that lead 17 to start the second but what the Bullets did over the next few minutes was show tremendous heart and fight.

It started with scores from Josh Adams and Cook before the Bullets scored 11 straight points including a pair of three balls to Adams, and another to Smith-Milner who made it back on the floor after going off with an injury scare in the first quarter.

That 15-2 run for Brisbane had them right back in the contest cutting the Illawarra lead back to four, but the Hawks answered with the next 13 points and from there went into half-time on top 56-41.

Adams and Cook had combined for 21 of those 41 points in the first half for the Bullets.

You couldn’t fault the fighting spirit of the Brisbane players through the second half, but the Hawks were playing at a high level with their lead getting out to 31 points by three quarter-time.

Illawarra's lead was as much 41 points late in the piece, but the Bullets did keep competing and even got three-pointers from Devers, Kye Savage and Isaac White in the last quarter to take some positives out of the contest.

The Bullets will now make the most of the time between now and Friday night to try and freshen up and get some players back healthy ahead of playing the New Zealand Breakers in Auckland.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2024/25

BRISBANE BULLETS 87 (Cook 19, Bannan 15, Adams 12)

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 121 (Froling 17, Swaka Lo Buluk 16, Peatling 15)

BOX SCORE