Sixers go down to Hawks in the 'Gong

Sunday Dech was feeling it, Kai Sotto showed his potential and the Adelaide 36ers battled hard, but ultimately fell short with the Illawarra Hawks scoring the 100-89 win in Wollongong on Monday night.

The 36ers were playing their third game in six days returning to NBL action following an enforced 31-day break, and coming off a win against Perth and loss to Melbourne, were looking to put together a strong showing against the Hawks at WIN Entertainment Centre.

While it wasn’t a night without positives for the 36ers, in the end the 16 turnovers that led directly to 30 points from the Hawks along with former Sixers big man Harry Froling led to their downfall.

There was still plenty to take out of the performance for the Sixers though. And in just his third game of the season, Sunday Dech was tremendous in his almost 30 minutes of court time for 20 points, three rebounds and two assists while shooting 6/10 from beyond the arc.

Todd Withers also was lively for the 36ers putting up 15 points, four rebounds and two assists while knocking down 3/5 from three-point territory.

Kai Sotto also had the best game of his budding NBL career, hitting the floor for almost 14 minutes for 12 points and five rebounds including a perfect 8/8 from the foul line. Daniel Johnson also had 10 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two blocks.

Cam Bairstow finished with eight points, 10 rebounds and three assists, Mitch McCarron eight points, five assists and four boards, Dusty Hannahs five points, Mojave King five points, Hyrum Harris four points, and Manny Malou two points and the steal that led to his dunk.

Sixers coach CJ Bruton lamented his team giving up 16 turnovers from which the Hawks scored 30 points as the biggest factor in the result.

"It's not about the defence, if you turn the ball over that many times in this league, clearly that costs you," Bruton said. 

"We gave up 30 points off turnovers so it's not on the defensive end, part of that comes to D-trans, but if you turn it over it can kick your butt and tonight was one of those nights. It's all about teaching them how to pass and catch, get open, make good leads and all the basics that you teach kids growing up.

"But there's a mental mindset and application that goes with that, and I probably need to do a better job of recognising when guys get fatigued to get them out. There's a certain level of playing in the NBL that is required by us to be successful in this space and we haven’t quite got to that level consistently enough through these first six or seven games."

The 36ers made the perfect start with a steal and breakaway dunk to Todd Withers before Sunday Dech knocked down his first three-pointer of the night back on his old home floor.

The Sixers then were able to do well to stick with the Hawks the rest of the first quarter to only be down four at quarter-time, before triples from Withers and Dech early in the second kept them within four points still.

It was former Sixer Harry Froling's time to catch fire and help Illawarra open up a 15-point lead, but Adelaide finished the half strongly including a pair of three balls to Daniel Johnson to be just five points behind at half-time.

The third quarter didn’t quite go to plan, though, for the 36ers with the Hawks putting up 29 points to 14 to open up a 22-point advantage by three quarter-time.

To the credit of the 36ers, they did finish strongly in the fourth period starting with another triple from Dech. Hyrum Harris soon added a three-point play before Withers and Dech drained two more three-point bombs themselves.

Adelaide finished the game scoring the last four points as well to close the final margin to 11.

The 36ers now head to Hobart to play the Tasmania JackJumpers on Friday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 8

ADELAIDE 36ERS 89 (Dech 20, Withers 15, Sotto 12) 

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 100 (H Froling 27, Harvey 19, S Froling 18)

BOX SCORE