Hot-handed Hawks smash Phoenix, into NBL title series

The Illawarra Hawks are a step closer to a second NBL championship after Trey Kell spearheaded a 126-96 thumping of South East Melbourne in their playoff series decider.

All-NBL First Team star Kell, who struggled with just six points in game two, exploded with 26 of the Hawks' 70 in the highest-scoring first half by any team this season.

It laid the platform for a dominant victory for the home side at the WIN Entertainment Centre on Wednesday night.

American guard Kell finished with a game-high 30 points, propelling the Hawks into their first championship series in eight years and fifth overall.

"It started with No.3 for Illawarra not being terrible at basketball," Kell said post-game.

"I was awful in game two, so I took it upon myself to bring the energy and be aggressive.

"It's been a great year for us and I'm just happy we get to keep it going."

Top seeds Illawarra will have home-court advantage for the best-of-five title series against Melbourne United, starting on Saturday night.

A foundation club in 1979, the Hawks' only previous championship was in 2001.

Kell had plenty of influential teammates against SEM, including veteran Todd Blanchfield, who celebrated a rare start with 28 points and an equal career-high eight made three-pointers.

Tyler Harvey (12 points), Wani Swaka Lo Buluk (12), Will Hickey (11) and Lachlan Albrich (10) also reached double figures for Illawarra, while Sam Froling had 12 rebounds in 16 minutes on court.

Hawks coach Justin Tatum said the irresistible performance was borne out of his players' desire to make amends for a poor game-two showing with their title ambitions on the line.

"That's what we talked about. The performance was all on them," Tatum said.

"They knew that today was going to be a slugfest and we came out punching."

Nathan Sobey (19 points) and Joe Wieskamp (25) fought hard for the Phoenix but NBL MVP finalist Matt Hurt was rendered ineffective, managing just four points on one-of-six shooting.

The result ended SEM's fairytale fightback under coach Josh King, who joined mid-season after Mike Kelly was sacked following a 0-5 start to the campaign.

They recovered to finish the regular season in fourth spot (16-13) and missed out on reaching what would have been the club's first championship series by just one win.

King expressed pride in his group but conceded the Phoenix had put in a "stinker" of a performance on the big stage.

"We just got punched early. It was a knockout punch," King said.

"The guys kept playing hard, they're a great group of guys but it wasn't our best night.

"It was a bad night to not be at your best with what was at stake."

Kell was outstanding in the Hawks' dominant opening period, draining 16 points on perfect five-of-five shooting from the field and four-of-four at the foul line.

It put the league's best first-quarter team up 37-22 and the lead quickly ballooned out beyond 20 points during the second period.

Hurt had taken just two shots to that point - both unsuccessful - as the Phoenix failed to bring their star man into the game.

There was drama late in the first half when a Sobey steal at half-court caught a pair of floor-wipers napping.

Sobey flew past them through the air and missed his lay-up, Hurt followed up to score his first points but fortunately nobody was injured.

Illawarra led 70-44 at the main break and shooting percentages told the tale, with the home side going at 61 per cent from the field to SEM's 34 per cent.

The one-sided demolition continued in the second half as the Hawks powered away to the biggest score and winning margin in the club's finals history.