Illawarra has officially completed its inaugural schedule.
Lee Hyun-jung’s Australian (NBL) team, the Illawarra Hawks, defeated the Shanghai Sharks (China) 101-88 in a friendly game at the Wynn Entertainment Center in Australia on Sunday (KST).
The game was Illawarra’s first scrimmage of the offseason and also marked the unofficial debut of head coach Jason Tatum, 안전놀이터 who is preparing for his first season as a full-time head coach.
Shanghai, a member of China’s CBA league, is a popular club with former international Wang Zhoulin and finished sixth last season with a 32-20 record. The team is also known for being the home of Chinese basketball legend Yao Ming before he moved on to the NBA.
Australian international big man Sam Prowling (22 points, 4 rebounds) led the team’s offense, while Tyler Harvey (18 points, 4 3-pointers, 3 rebounds, 5 assists) and Lachlan Albrich (17 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals) also contributed to the win over Illawarra.
With the season set to begin next month, Illawarra is facing a number of departures, with Gary Clark, who averaged 16.7 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game last season and was named to the NBL First Team, heading to the Japanese B.League and leading scorer Justin Robinson to Italy.
Therefore, it will be interesting to see how Lee Hyun-joong, who has been given an increased role since Tatum’s arrival, will make his presence felt. Lee averaged 7.4 points and 3.9 rebounds in 17.4 minutes over 27 games in the NBL last season.
However, Illawarra rostered a total of 13 players for this game, and Hyunjoong was not among them.