Illawarra continue red-hot start with blowout win over Taipans

In what was arguably the most impressive win in their undefeated start to the season, Brian Goorjian's side were on fire ffrom long range, shooting a collective 44 per cent from beyond the arc.

Golden State Warriors Draftee Justinian Jessup led the way with 19 points at a staggering 61 per cent from the field, including 3-4 from three-point range, in another exceptional showing at the Snagpit.

Not to be outdone, MVP fancy Tyler Harvey went 5-7 from long-range in his 21 points, three triples coming in the last quarter to twist the knife on the hosts.

With Cam Bairstow still missing through injury, Sam Froling continued his strong start to the season with 14 points and seven rebounds, while Justin Simon produced his typically Trojan-like performance with seven points, eight rebounds, five assists and four steals.

The steals were part of a collective nine for the Hawks who grabbed a monstrous 26 points from turnovers and pulled down 18 offensive rebounds, the effort areas Goorjian lauded post-game.

"We've just got something good happening here with out group," Goorjian said.

"When we got together we talked about the things that we can control, we can control the defence, we can control the rebounding and we can control the effort.

"I thought on that side, over this whole trip, you've got to give the whole team a 10 out of 10 in that area. We beat a very talented team tonight and I thought we did a really good job defensively.

"We're all talking about it, we're really excited to take this to the Gong and be the hottest ticket in town. That's our goal. This thing's so long and we're taking it day by day, but you can't take these wins away.

"These wins on the road are ours and we've just got to keep getting better as the season goes along because it's a long year, but it's beyond my wildest dreams to be 4-0 going back to the Gong."

Cam Oliver finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds, while Scott Machado had 14 points and seven assists for the hosts, but it was in vain as last year's finalists' slumped to a 1-4 start to the season - all on their home floor.

Oliver had five early in a hot start for the hosts before Harvey's had his first triple from the Kmart logo. Jessup chimed in with back to back threes, the latter on the buzzer, to punctuate a 13-0 run to close the term.

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It turned a 12-8 deficit into a 19-12 quarter-time lead that shot out further when Isaac White grabbed his first triple to start the second quarter and extend the scoring run to 16-0. Machado hit a much needed three to drag the deficit back to nine at the main break, but the margin ballooned to 16 as the Hawks opened the third with a 9-4 run and forced Mike Kelly into a quick timeout.

Machado continued to put his team on his back with four points and another two assists, while Oliver took his tally to 19, before an inbound alley-oop slam - and bonus free-throw - from Mojave King cut things back to six at the final break.

It was as close as it got, with Jessup grabbing five points to start the fourth, and Harvey dropping consecutive triples and neat floater on a 21-6 run to start the fourth that blew the hosts right out down the stretch.