Teenage phenom Trentyn Flowers' fourth-quarter explosion has steered the Adelaide 36ers to a drought-breaking 89-80 win over Illawarra Hawks at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.

The bottom-ranked Sixers were wallowing at 0-4 entering Saturday's match and trailed at every break before Flowers, projected to be a potential first-round pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, came of age and piloted his side to victory.

Flowers scored 23 points, including 18 in the final term during which the Sixers swamped the Hawks 35-20 to secure their maiden triumph of the season.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Trentyn Flowers is turning it ON in the last quarter ?<br><br>Can he lead the 36ers to their first win of the year? ?<br><br>Fine out on ESPN via Kayo ? <a href="https://t.co/cmSxWzWzsi">pic.twitter.com/cmSxWzWzsi</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1713103936733802962?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 14, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Import Trey Kell (25 points, nine rebounds) laid the earlier foundation which allowed Flowers to bloom late.

Sam Froling (21 points) led the charge for the Hawks, who needed more from their American guards Tyler Harvey (12 points at 33 per cent) and Justin Robinson (three points at seven per cent).

Adelaide fell in an early ditch, trailing 20-8 as they chalked up more turnovers (six) than shot attempts (five).

Kell (13 first-quarter points), who traded buckets with Illawarra's ex-NBA forward Greg Clark (12), dug them out of the hole and his trey on the quarter-time bell reduced the Hawks' lead to 25-23.

Kell and Isaac Humphries continued their solid play in the second to trim the deficit to 40-39 at half-time.

Behind Froling, Illawarra gradually began drawing away from the 36ers in the shadows of three quarter-time, but their upper hand came quickly undone by the Flowers show.

The 18-year-old started the fourth term with a tip-in and a pair of threes.

He hit four from downtown for the quarter to single-handedly outscore the Hawks 18-10 over the first seven minutes, hammering home resurgent Adelaide's advantage.

Adelaide 89
Illawarra 80