Aggressive Phoenix Beat Wildcats to Stay Alive

The Perth Wildcats' offensive arsenal still gave them a chance but the South East Melbourne Phoenix dominated the boards and inside, Alan Williams had a day out and the home team got the crucial 112-91 win they needed on Sunday.

The Phoenix found themselves back outside the top six coming into Sunday's clash at the State Basketball Centre following Melbourne United's win in Adelaide, and it was a significant test against the Wildcats.

The 'Cats were fresh off beating Sydney at home on Friday to give them three consecutive wins to be looking solid in fourth spot, but right from the start on Sunday, the Phoenix did as they pleased offensively and on the glass.

That proved the major difference in the contest with Williams leading the charge for the Phoenix, he finished with 27 points, 14 rebounds and six assists on 13/18 shooting.

The Phoenix were able to answer every challenge as a result. By the end of the game, they had pulled down 49 rebounds to Perth's 25 including a monstrous 19 at the offensive end to seven for 27 second chance points to 11.

South East Melbourne also dominated inside offensively scoring 56 points in the paint to 34. Adding in the six three-pointers and 22 points in the first half from Ryan Broekhoff, and the Phoenix just had too much.

The bad news of the afternoon for South East Melbourne was Broekhoff appearing to injure his groin in the fourth quarter.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Six three’s in a half for Broekhoff ?<br><br>Watch live and free on 10 Peach and 10 play | Live on ESPN2 via Kayo Sports + Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/pp4MZRJgQN">pic.twitter.com/pp4MZRJgQN</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1617008305335054341?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

He did end the game with 26 points and five rebounds with Mitch Creek adding 20 points, eight rebounds and six assists, Gary Browne 14 points, eight assists and five boards, and Trey Kell III 10 points, six rebounds and five assists.

Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell felt coming into the game that his team would have an advantage on the glass and around the rim, and was glad to see it come to fruition.

"We still felt that we could dominate them in the rebounding area and we did," Mitchell said. 

"It's an area of the game we're pretty accomplished at, we're the No. 1 rebounding team in the league and the No.1 offensive rebounding team in the league. 

"It's a team that we thought with their smaller backcourt that we may be able to put some hurt on them there, and the boys did so credit to them."

The Wildcats didn’t produce a bad offensive performance and still put up 91 points. Bryce Cotton had 25, five rebounds and four assists, Corey Webster 21 points, Luke Travers 13 points, five boards and five assists and Tai Webster nine points.

They just couldn’t do anything to stop the Phoenix up the other end and the rebounding woes were again significant.

Wildcats coach John Rillie just felt what he saw from his team to start the game meant it was always going to be a challenge.

"With that quick turnaround, two things I wanted to emphasise and that was communication and rebounding," Rillie said.

"So for us to have a possession where they were playing volleyball, they just showed me where our mind was at for the start of the game. Two things we were worried about were d-trans and rebounding and we showed where we were at from the start of the game. 

"We had a great game Friday night, very emotional and then our flight got cancelled so we didn’t get to the hotel until early this morning. 

"Those things can go one or two ways, you can come out with great energy and spirit or play really well but that first possession really showed where we were at. We did a great job in the second quarter to fight back, we just could never get over that hump."

The Phoenix wasted no time setting the tone dominating the offensive glass from the outset. They scored the first four points leading to a quick and furious John Rillie timeout.

Ryan Broekhoff hit two threes and knocked down another jumper for his own 8-0 run to put South East Melbourne up 12-3 and it was soon 14-5 before the Wildcats found some offence, but still not too many rebounds.

Brady Manek landed from beyond the arc and then Bryce Cotton scored 10 of his team's last 12 points of the quarter including two separate trips to the stripe when fouled shooting from deep.

However, the Phoenix remained on top including another triple from Broekhoff to give him 11 points. His team had eight offensive rebounds to seven overall boards from the 'Cats to lead 27-22.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BRYCE C?TT?N.<br><br>? Watch live on ESPN2 via Kayo &amp; Foxtel, or live &amp; free on 10 Peach <a href="https://t.co/S3dPYbgHWQ">pic.twitter.com/S3dPYbgHWQ</a></p>&mdash; Perth Wildcats (@PerthWildcats) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerthWildcats/status/1617017282924011521?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Perth did close the gap early in the second quarter with long balls from Luke Travers and Manek, but South East Melbourne blew things wide open by scoring 13 consecutive points with a mix of hustle and good offence, and horrible Wildcats defence.

Alan Williams continued to be a beast down low scoring six of those points with Trey Kell III adding a three-pointer for the Phoenix to open up a 44-30 advantage.

However, Perth's offence warmed up for the rest of the half and they put up 25 points in the matter of five minutes. They still couldn’t really slow down the Phoenix and Broekhoff closed out the half with three more bombs from downtown.

The 'Cats, though, did end the half on a 12-5 run including the last seven points to cut South East Melbourne's lead to 61-55 despite the 22 points and six triples from Broekhoff, and the 24 rebounds to 13 including 12 to three offensively.

Perth came out strong to start the second half with an and-one to Cotton and three-pointer to Corey Webster, and they were within a point soon after but could never quite get over that hump.

The Phoenix answered with the next five points and thanks to some strong work from Junior Madut and then a three ball to Kyle Adnam, the home team maintained an 83-76 edge by three quarter-time.

Creek scored a couple of baskets all too easily to open the fourth push South East Melbourne's lead out to 11 before Perth got a steadying triple from Cotton.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Broekhoff is on ? early for <a href="https://twitter.com/SEMelbPhoenix?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SEMelbPhoenix</a> <br><br>Watch live and free on 10 Peach and 10 play | Live on ESPN2 via Kayo Sports + Foxtel <a href="https://t.co/2ktRucKekD">pic.twitter.com/2ktRucKekD</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1616998020801007616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Phoenix continued to have all the answers, though, and Williams' work down low was key. Kell knocked down a dagger three, Creek did the same and the home team scored 14 of the last 19 points to cruise to the 21-point win. 

The Phoenix remain at home to host the Cairns Taipans on Wednesday night while the Wildcats are back home to the bottom placed Illawarra Hawks on Friday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 16

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 112 (Williams 27, Broekhoff 26, Creek 20)

PERTH WILDCATS 91 (Cotton 25, C Webster 21, Travers 13) 

BOX SCORE