East Spotlight | Horvat dominates in big Comets win

Featured image: Rob Sheeley/@robshots

Chantel Horvat was a dominant presence with 34 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Sydney Comets to back-to-back NBL1 East wins beating the Illawarra Hawks 87-71 on Sunday.

The Comets arrived at The Snakepit making their only appearance of the weekend coming off a win against the Inner West Bulls with the Hawks having lost five straight including on Saturday also at home to the Albury Wodonga Bandits.

Illawarra stayed in the contest with five threes in the first quarter but Sydney took over from there to lead by nine points at half-time, by 12 at three quarter-time and ending up winning by 16 to improve to a 5-12 record with the Hawks now 5-12.

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The Hawks made a strong three-point shooting start with 5/11 in the first quarter to keep them in the contest but they only went 2/15 for the rest of the game while ending up shooting 36 per cent overall to the 47 per cent from the Comets.

Sydney did leave the door open for Illawarra by shooting just 12/26 at the free-throw line, but they did get up an extra seven shots combined with being more efficient to end up scoring the 16-point win.

Chantel Horvat had a huge showing for the Comets made up of 34 points, 12 rebounds and two assists with 14/27 field goal shooting.

Mikayla Pirini also finished with 15 points, 13 assists and six rebounds, Eryn Fisher 14 points, seven boards and four steals, Marley Sialeipata seven points and two steals, Elle Fletcher seven points, and Alexandra Kayrouz six points, eight rebounds and two steals.

The Hawks have now lost the six straight games despite Asha Phillips finishing with 20 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals with Una Jovanovich adding 13 points, three assists and two boards.

Darcy Rees contributed 13 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks, and Tazmin Fulcher 11 points and three boards.

The Hawks came into the game at home trying to bounce back from the loss the night before while the Comets were making their lone appearance of the weekend, and it was Sydney clinging to the 18-16 lead by quarter-time.

The Comets were shooting 50 per cent from the floor to the 26 from the Hawks, but Illawarra did knock down 5/11 from beyond the arc to just 1/3 from Sydney to keep in touch.

The Comets then worked on top further in the second quarter with 25 points to 18 to end up leading 43-34 by half-time with Chantel Horvat showing the way up to 14 points and eight rebounds.

Sydney were shooting 50 per cent from the field still to the 34 from Illawarra after the home team went 1/6 from beyond the arc in that second term as well.

The lead for the Comets got out to 15 points in the third period and was still 12 by three quarter-time with Horvat and Mikayla Pirini already having double doubles.

It was then 21 points again to 17 in the last quarter with Sydney leading by as much as 20 and going on to secure the 16-point road victory.

The Hawks will attempt to bounce back next Saturday on the road to the Sutherland Sharks with the Comets out to make it three straight at home to the Hornsby Ku-Ring-Gai Spiders.

NBL1 EAST 2026 SEASON | FIRST NATIONS ROUND

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 71 (Phillips 20, Jovanovich 13, Rees 13)

SYDNEY COMETS 87 (Horvat 34, Pirini 15, Fisher 14)