Having struggled in recent seasons early on, starting well this NBL campaign was a priority for the Illawarra Hawks. Subscribe now for unlimited access . Login or signup to continue reading That's why head coach Justin Tatum was such a happy man after his team downed Cairns Taipans 102-75 in Perth on Saturday night.
Tatum was also pleased that the resounding win at HBF Stadium signified in his mind that the Hawks had regained a bit of their 'spunk' from last season. 'It was a nice way to start. I don't think we've had a win in our first game for a few years now," he said.
"We 100 per cent wanted to start this season off well. "I was telling the guys in the locker room that I thought that we lost our spunk a little bit from last year. "Our practices and some of the exhibition games we didn't have that same fire, so I wanted to make sure we found a way to get it back because at the end of the day we always feel like we are the underdogs, we want to keep playing like we haven't done anything yet.
" Just as importantly for the Hawks their new imports Darius Days and Trey Kell enjoyed solid outings. Days was particularly impressive and named player-of-the-match after draining 20 points and pulling down 12 boards. The 24-year-old shot the ball impressively as well, making eight of his 15 shots.
His combination with fellow front-court stars Sam Froling and Lachlan Olbrich had Tatum excited about their potential to cause teams pain. "I told Sammy in the locker room I could play you tw.