NBL MVP candidate Xavier Cooks' allround brilliance has helped the ladder-leading Sydney Kings overcome a fright to defeat the last-placed Illawarra Hawks 86-79 in Wollongong.
Captain Cooks (21 points, nine rebounds) was the only King to fire a shot early on Friday night as the Hawks burst out of the blocks, before producing a series of clutch plays to dent the home side's late challenge.
Tyler Harvey's stepback triple trimmed Sydney's lead to 81-79 with two minutes to play before Cooks snared a huge defensive rebound which resulted in an unsportsmanlike foul on Deng Deng.
The Kings skipper then drilled a bullet pass to Shaun Bruce for a three-point play with 15 seconds left, and finally drew a charge against Peyton Siva in the closing stages.
"Xav was terrific, made some good plays in the pocket," Kings coach Chase Buford said.
"These guys showed some resilience to get a few baskets and clutch stops."
Harvey (19 points) and Siva (15) led the charge for the Hawks, who held sway by 10 points early in the second term, trailed by 11 in the fourth and only lost their grip on the game in the last two minutes.
The Kings' defence was non-existent early, angering coach Chase Buford who called a time-out and told his charges: "Get back on defence or come sit next to me."
A 10-0 run either side of quarter-time saw the Hawks flip the anticipated script and pull ahead of the Kings 31-21.
Illawarra went ice cold from the perimeter, missing 14 straight three-pointers to hand the visitors the lead.
Cooks scored 10 points in the third stanza, including two massive dunks, and with the support of big Tim Soares (18 points, nine boards), Sydney strengthened their grip on the game.
Their lead swelled to 71-60 on Dejan Vasiljevic's trey early in the fourth before Harvey piloted a gallant rearguard action which was ultimately corralled by Cooks.
"They're top of the table and we're where we are," Hawks coach Jacob Jackomas said.
"We've come into these situations where we'd be happy with that but I actually think we had a pretty good chance to win today and we stuffed it up a little bit."
