Tyler Harvey, Quentin Peterson and JaVale McGee all starred as defending champions Illawarra Hawks signed off on their NBL season with a romping 103-70 win over the Tasmania JackJumpers.
Consistency has plagued the Hawks all the way through this campaign and they would have been frustrated after their stellar performance on Wednesday night at Hobart's MyState Bank Arena.
The winners of the last two NBL championships started the clash with the Hawks without a chance of making the finals and the JackJumpers unable to move from sixth position.
The Hawks were clearly on a mission to finish their season on a high. The shooting touch of Harvey and Peterson, and the all-round size and talents of three-time NBA champion McGee was too much for the JackJumpers.
Despite qualifying for finals, the JackJumpers remain without key foursome Will Magnay (toe), Ben Ayre (osteitis pubis), Bryce Hamilton (knee) and Sean Macdonald (knee).
The Hawks had fun in the first half and by half-time had opened up a 54-34 lead thanks to scoring the last nine points. Harvey and Peterson combined for 27 of those points on six-of-11 shooting from deep.
Josh Bannan and Majok Deng battled hard for Tasmania combining for 24 points on seven-of-12 shooting, but the rest of the team only managed 10 points on four-of-22.
Illawarra pushed that lead out to 30 by three quarter-time before scoring the first six points of the fourth term on the way to the 33-point win to finish their championship defence at 13-20.
Harvey hit six-of-10 from behind the arc for 21 points with four assists and four rebounds, while Peterson added 20 points and three assists on three-of-six from deep.
McGee ended his first NBL season with 15 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks, including a monster one on Bannan, with Sam Froling contributing 11 points, nine rebounds and three assists.
It was a tough offensive night for Tasmania with 32 per cent shooting overall and three-of-24 from behind the three-point arc with Bannan and Tyger Campbell both finishing with 17 points.
