Kings Swoop On Hawks

The Sydney Kings have saved their best basketball for the latter stages of tonight’s grand final replay against the Wollongong Hawks sneaking home 99-96 in front of a packed WIN Entertainment Centre.

At times the match resembled a WWE production with players chest bumping and talking plenty of trash, but in the end Sydney were the side that held their composure the better stealing a much needed win away from the injury riddled Hawks outfit.

Throughout the match no more than seven points separated the two sides in the often heated battle, but with the scores locked at 90-90 heading into the final two minutes of the game Sydney veterans Jason Smith and CJ Bruton ensured their side would be going home with the win as they killed off the Hawks challenge with some stunning clutch shooting.

Smith had one of his best games leading Sydney with 27 points courtesy of some lethal long range shooting (7/13 3pt), but after the match did not want to talk about his game instead focusing on the improvement his side has made over this early part of the season.

“The first few weeks we were so-so, a middle of the road team, but I think now we are definitely in that top echelon of teams”, Smith told Steve Carfino of Fox Sports.

“We are very happy with this win because we have a tough weekend. We got to go back tomorrow afternoon and play a pretty good Breakers team, so we are very happy to get this one. We’ll be even happier if we get tomorrow’s as well though”.

CJ Bruton was not at his best in tonight’s game, but he scored when it mattered picking up a majority of his 22 points at crucial stages of the match.

Hawks import Adam Ballinger single handedly tried to lift his side over the line producing a massive effort that saw him rack up game highs in both points (39) and rebounds (17).

Veteran Mat Campbell also had one of his better games hitting 5/8 from behind the three point line to score 19 points, while Cortez Groves played a great game as well with 16 points and 11 assists.

Coming into the match Wollongong and their legion of fans knew a win was vital if the Hawks were to keep pace with the top eight and in the opening minutes of the game they exploded out of the blocks racing to an 11-4 lead.

This early onslaught didn’t phase the Kings at all though as they countered with a 21-8 run over the rest of the period to take a handy five point lead into quarter time (25-19).

Hawks captain Mat Campbell came out hot in the second term scoring a quick fire 10 points to bring his side level at 40-40 midway through the period, but late surge from Sydney saw them head into the main break ahead 50-45.

The third quarter was definitely the Adam Ballinger show with the big man proving nearly impossible to stop as he scored 20 of Wollongong’s 27 points to lift his side back into contention heading into the final quarter (72-72).

The last period proved truly worthy of a grand final replay with both teams fighting tooth and nail for the win and with the Kings leading 95-94 with 30 seconds left on the clock it looked set for a grandstand finish, but some clutch free throws from Smith and Bruton put a dampener on proceedings at ‘The Sandpit’ as the Kings snuck away with a tight three point triumph.

The Kings (7-2) must now head back up the highway to their home court where they will look to extend their winning streak to five games when they host the New Zealand Breakers tomorrow afternoon.

Wollongong (3-6) have a week to lick their wounds before undertaking the road trip dubbed ‘the Sunshine Swing’ where they will meet both the Cairns Taipans and Townsville Crocodiles.

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