Illawarra will take on Melbourne United in the NBL title series after Trey Kell starred in a dominant win over South East Melbourne in their playoff decider.
The Illawarra Hawks are a step closer to a second NBL championship after Trey Kell spearheaded a 126-96 thumping of South East Melbourne in their playoff series decider.
All-NBL First Team star Kell, who struggled with just six points in game two, exploded with 26 of the Hawks' 70 in the highest-scoring first half by any team this season.
It laid the platform for a dominant victory for the home side at the WIN Entertainment Centre on Wednesday night.
American guard Kell finished with a game-high 30 points, propelling Illawarra into their first championship series in eight years and fifth overall.
The top seeds will have home-court advantage for the best-of-five title series against Melbourne United, starting on Saturday night.
A foundation club in 1979, the Hawks' only previous title was in 2001.
Kell had plenty of influential teammates, including veteran Todd Blanchfield, who celebrated a rare start with 28 points and an equal career-high eight made three-pointers.
Tyler Harvey (12 points), Wani Swaka Lo Buluk (12), Will Hickey (11) and Lachlan Albrich (10) also reached double figures for Illawarra.
"It started with No.3 for Illawarra not being terrible at basketball," Kell said post-game.
"I was awful in game two, so I took it upon myself to bring the energy and be aggressive.
"If we were going to lose, I wanted it to be playing aggressive and not be playing tentative and slow.
"I took a lot of the blame in game two and shoutout to this team, this crowd.
"It's been a great year for us and I'm just happy we get to keep it going."
Nathan Sobey (19 points) and Joe Wieskamp (25) fought hard for the Phoenix as NBL MVP finalist Matt Hurt was rendered ineffective, managing just four points on one-of-six shooting.
The result ended SEM's fairytale fightback under coach Josh King, who joined mid-season after Mike Kelly was sacked following a 0-5 start to the campaign.
They recovered to finish the regular season in fourth spot (16-13) and missed out on reaching what would have been the club's first championship series by just one win.
Kell was outstanding in the Hawks' irresistible opening period, draining 16 points on perfect five-of-five shooting from the field and four-of-four at the foul line.
It put the league's best first-quarter team up 37-22 and the lead quickly ballooned out beyond 20 points during the second period.
Hurt had taken just two shots to that point - both unsuccessful - as the Phoenix failed to bring their star man into the game.
There was drama late in the first half when a Sobey steal at half-court caught a pair of floor-wipers napping.
Sobey flew past them through the air and missed his lay-up, Hurt followed up to score his first points but fortunately nobody was injured.
Illawarra led 70-44 at the main break and shooting percentages told the tale, with the home side going at 61 per cent from the field to SEM's 34 per cent.
The one-sided demolition continued in the second half as the Hawks powered away to the biggest score and winning margin in the club's finals history.
Tempers flared twice during the final period, first when Sobey and Hickey clashed away from the ball, and again when Owen Foxwell took exception to Daniel Grida's heavy foul and subsequent standing over Wieskamp.
Grida was handed a double technical foul in the fall-out and was ejected, while Hawks coach Justin Tatum was also given a technical foul for blowing up at the referees.