East Spotlight | Blanch starts hot and Hawks win big

Featured image: @mamba.journals

Todd Blanchfield lit it up with 18 first-quarter points to set the tone for the Illawarra Hawks before they went on to score the thumping 97-76 NBL1 East win over the Inner West Bulls to make it five in-a-row.

The Hawks are building nicely this season with Mason Peatling settling in alongside Blanchfield and Matt Mims as they look to go one better than their heartbreaking Grand Final loss last year to the Canberra Gunners.

They arrived at Sydney Uni Sports and Aquatics Centre having won four straight but the Bulls had been building momentum too having won their past couple.

But the Hawks opened up an 11-point lead by quarter-time on the back of 18 points and four triples from Blanchfield and then went on with the job from there for the eventual 21-point victory to improve to 7-1.

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Blanchfield made a blistering start for the Hawks with the 18 first-quarter points on his way to 31 for the game with 14 rebounds, five assists and three blocks with 7/12 three-point shooting and 12/19 overall from the floor.

Mason Peatling also had 20 points, 14 rebounds and two blocks while Philip Dopud contributed 14 points and six rebounds, Mohamed Kone 16 points, five boards and five assists, and Matt Mims eight points, seven rebounds, six steals and five assists.

The Bulls might not have quite been able to make it three straight wins but Kobe Shannon did have a strong showing with 22 points, four rebounds and three assists with 4/11 three-point shooting.

Louis Bleechmore added 18 points and six rebounds also going 4/9 from behind the arc while Malok Majak had a hot start with 13 points in the first quarter but only finished with 15 to go with eight rebounds, two assists and two steals on 6/17 shooting.

Max Clark also had 10 points and four assists for the Bulls.

The Hawks made a blistering start away from home and it was their 473-game NBL veteran showing the way. Todd Blanchfield had a remarkable 18 points in the first quarter with 4/5 three-point shooting and as a result his team was leading 33-22.

Malok Majak had 13 points for Inner West to try to keep his team in touch but they did only shoot 32 per cent from the field for the first 10 minutes to the 52 from the Hawks.

Blanchfield hit another three and added five more points in the second quarter while going into half-time his NBL teammate Mason Peatling was up to 16 points and seven boards.

Majak didn’t add to his 13 points in the quarter either for the Bulls with Illawarra going into the locker room for half-time on top 53-38.

The Bulls did their best to make a game of it in the third quarter and did outscore the Hawks 21 to 18, but Illawarra pulled away once more with 26 points to 17 in the last term on the way to the 21-point road victory to improve to 7-1 as they look to go one step further in 2026.

It's the lone game of the round for both teams with the Bulls away to the Hornsby Ku-Ring-Gai Spiders next Saturday while the Hawks are also on the road against the Penrith Panthers.

NBL1 EAST 2026 SEASON | ROUND 6

INNER WEST BULLS 76 (Shannon 22, Bleechmore 18, Majak 15)

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 97 (Blanchfield 31, Peatling 20, Dopud 14)