The last time the Illawarra Hawks crossed paths with Bryce Cotton almost a year ago the American sunk a season high 40 points, seven rebounds and four assists to guide the Perth Wildcats to a comprehensive 106-86 victory.
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Cotton has been just as impressive this NBL season.
The guard heads into Friday night's clash against the Hawks in Wollongong fresh from a star-turn against reigning champions Sydney Kings where he contributed 41 points, five rebounds and two assists in the Wildcats 114-105 win, their sixth on the trot.
The good form of Cotton and the Wildcats is not lost on Hawks interim coach Justin Tatum, who said it would take a team effort to contain the MVP favourite and the Wildcats.
"It's going to have to be a team effort. For Cotton we've got different bodies, guys like Wani [Swaka Lo Buluk], we have guys like Biwali [Bayles], J-Rob [ Justin Robinson], long, active defensive guys who have five or six fouls that can sit out there and make Bryce work," he said.
"But as a whole we got to make sure our bigs communicate and let them know where he's at at all times.
"Playing 40 minutes against us is going to be tough. We don't expect him to have 40 points in 40 minutes but if he does and everybody else has two to four points, then we are in a good situation."
Tatum though was more interested in getting the Hawks playing better, for longer periods.
The coach was disappointed to lose to the Bullets by just one-point last Sunday but felt the Hawks showed signs of improvement, especially defensively.
Tatum though wants his team to be more consistent at the end of quarters and at the end of games.
"The last two, three minutes we had a chance, we had a four-point lead at a point of time and then there were a couple of shots and turnovers which allowed Brisbane to get back in the game," he said.
"But the effort that my boys gave, the attention to details to the scouting report, it was all there, but we do have to get better at making playing both ends.
"Now we're doing really good on the defensive end. Now we got to start making the shots that we make in practice."
Tyler Harvey, so often a match-winner for the Hawks, had one of his worst games against Brisbane, but Tatum is backing his shooting guard to come good and help Illawarra string some much-needed wins.
"Tyler, he's a professional scorer, he's a professional shooter. They go in slumps or they have games like that, but we had so much time around him to be able to pick it up," he said.
"For the most past they did, J-Rob got a chance to get a couple of threes, which he was normally down in the threes and Gary [Clark] got it going a little bit late and hopefully we get him a few more shots during the course of the game.
"Tyler knows that it is next shot mentality and I'm glad he has that.
"For us as a team it's important now to turn these performances into wins.
"The other day, we were about one win away from being out of seventh place and two wins out of the six. So we are still right there in the mix.
"I think this home game, once we get a chance to win and we put a couple together, the guys will start seeing what a winning streak looks like, then we will be back in that fifth or sixth mix."
Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
