Dent explosion not enough for Hawks as Kings reign supreme in Wollongong NBL opener

Local lad Dent seemed the unlikeliest of heroes when he produced 13 of his 19 points in the final term to finish at a perfect 7-7 from the field but it was the Kings' big guns who ultimately had final say.

Derrick Walton Jr. was tormentor in chief, producing 13 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter to go with eight assists in the performance that was the difference in a 106-97 win for the defending champions.

Justin Simon fell just short of a double-double against his former team with 19 points, nine rebounds and three steals, while Xavier Cooks had 15 of 24 points in the second half.

The Hawks stars were cold in comparison, Tyler Harvey's 18 points coming at 6-19 from the field and Justin Robinson enduring a frustrating NBL debut with 10 points at 5-20 from the field while coming up empty at 0-9 from three-point range.

In just his second outing in Hawks colours, import George King's 14 points and five rebounds were peppered with touches of class.

Wani Swaka Lo Buluk's solid debut against his former club was another silver lining to the loss, with his 14 points coming in complement to his characteristically relentlessness at the defensive end.

If you were looking for turning points it was hard to go past a key turnover from Deng Deng on the fast break with the Hawks leading by seven late in the third term.

With Harvey and Robinson looming, Deng's attempted no-looker sailed out of bounds, taking a nine-point lead with it.

It proved a key moment, with the Hawks inexplicably giving Dejan Vasiljevic - cold to that point - three open looks and paying dearly on all three to surrender the lead and trail by three at the final break.

It saw the game turn into a thriller down the stretch, but it was the Kings stars who shone on a night the Hawks got 48 of their points from the second unit.

"I thought we just had a bad patch and part of that was [Vasiljevic] going off, we shouldn't have allowed that," Hawks coach Jacob Jackomas said post-game.

"There was a lot of good, a lot of bad for this time of year, but we pride ourselves on the defensive end and [giving up] 106 points is too much, especially with what we've been doing in preseason games.

"It's round one and [our new guys] have been in situations before where they've had to play with people that might even know their names.

"We're not using any excuses, we've got to look at ourselves. It's early days and it's nothing to get carried away with, but we just didn't play our brand today. That's all it was.

"We could've won not playing our brand, but today we took a loss. There's a lot to work on and the good thing is we get to play again on Thursday."

The Kings jumped out on a 7-2 run punctuated by a triple to Cooks, with Swaka Lo Buluk's four points keeping the Hawks in touch.

Read more: 'Mango is just energy' Reborn Mathiang rewriting the script on Hawks NBL homecoming

It was a glimmer in a cold offensive start as the Hawks went 4-12 from the field to trail 13-6 at the mid-point of the term.

Simon slammed one for the highlight reel as the margin went out to seven as King checked in and drained his first three to cut things back to four.

An and-one from Walton Jr. re-took the initiative before Dent dropped back-to-back threes and cut things back to just three at the first break despite the hosts going 9-25 from the field.

Walton Jr. continued to dominate proceedings in the second, dropping two triples for a tidy 15 points at the half.

Swaka Lo Buluk had another three and King also fired twice from long-range - the second following a monster block from Mangok Mathiang.

It saw his halftime tally at a perfect 3-3 from deep before a Cooks tip-in on the buzzer gave the Kings a slender one-point cushion at the break.

The Hawks flew out of the blocks in the third, Harvey shrugging off his woes with six points for the term with Robsinon grabbing four as the hosts took their first lead.

Simon had and and-one and transition lay-up before Swaka Lo Buluk fired straight back coast to coast and forced Buford into a timeout.

Tim Coenraad had three from the line when things resumed and fired off another three from the perimeter as the Hawks lead ballooned a game-high seven.

Deng's turnover opened the door Vasiljevic's game-turning cameo that took back momentum at the final break.

The Hawks took the lead straight back early in the fourth with consecutive threes to Froling and Dent, the latter producing a further 10 points in the term.

It put an incredible story in the works before Walton sucked the energy out of the room with eight points in the final 90 seconds as the Kings closed it out.

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