Foxwell wants to deliver, not earn praise

Owen Foxwell produced a match-winning performance for the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Sunday but he doesn't want praise from coach Josh King – he just wants to keep living up to his expectations.

King has entrusted Foxwell with the starting point guard role this season for the Phoenix and the 22-year-old continues to repay that faith with it never more evident than Sunday's 87-81 win away to the New Zealand Breakers.

Foxwell picked up a second foul with 6:24 to go in the first half and sat out the rest of the second quarter, and the Breakers outscored the Phoenix 22-9 the rest of the half to be leading 46-34.

Foxwell was back out there for the start of the second half and had a significant impact at both ends of the floor ending up with 19 points, seven assists and four rebounds with 4/6 three-point shooting.

He also played outstanding defence on Breakers superstar Parker Jackson-Cartwright who had nine points on 3/11 shooting while also having six of New Zealand's 21 turnovers for the game.

Highlighting Foxwell's impact was that the Phoenix were +25 in his 26 minutes but afterwards, he felt he simply lived up to what's expected of him.

"Obviously Josh since day one has put a lot of faith in me and my game, and this is the development of where I wanted to get to," Foxwell said.

"This is what I want to be producing night in and night out where I can control the game, and get everyone involved.

"That's his expectation of me and he doesn’t need to pump me up and say what a great game Foxy, this is his expectation of what I should be doing on the court.

"You could say it's underselling, but it's his expectation of what he wants to see every night."

For King, Foxwell's performance was the perfect example of why he has such faith in him to be their primary ball handler and leader of their defensive attack in the back court.

"I probably am underselling this guy right now, when he was on the floor we were dominant," King said.

"We were +25 when he was in the game so we clearly needed him in the game tonight and we all know that Foxy is a young guy who is new to leading the team in this particular role.

"He is going to continue getting better and better as the year moves forward."