Kings Hold Out Phoenix After Classic PG Battle

The Sydney Kings have strengthened their playoff push with an eighth straight win but it was a victory that went down to the wire 91-89 against the South East Melbourne Phoenix at John Cain Arena on Saturday night.

With both teams desperate to hold on to a spot inside the top four, it was a fascinating contest with the Kings arriving in Melbourne having won seven straight while the Phoenix had lost their past three including against the Illawarra Hawks on Thursday.

It was an enthralling battle all evening particularly with point guards Jaylen Adams and Xavier Munford delivering spectacular performances. And it was Munford who gave the Phoenix a shot late hitting a three with two minutes to go to make it a one-point game.

In the end, the smarts of Adams won the day for Sydney. He ran down the clock on the last possession with a one-point lead. His shot as the shot clock expired didn’t go, but then it was an offensive rebound from Jarell Martin that was match-winning.

Sydney had only six o-boards opposed to 18 from South East Melbourne, but that was the one that mattered most. 

Even though Martin made the second free-throw on error to give the Phoenix a sniff with 0.8 seconds to go, Kyle Adnam's in-bounds pass didn’t find a teammate and the Kings won by two to make it eight in-a-row and inflict on the Phoenix a third successive defeat.

Adams finished with 15 points, eight assists and five rebounds for Sydney. He made 3/7 from downtown but it was his ability to control the tempo that was most impressive as were his on-point alley-oop passes to Martin and Makur Maker.

Martin also put up 24 points and eight rebounds for the Kings while DJ Vasiljevic added 15 points and three assists, Ian Clark 13 points and Maker 11 points and three rebounds.

Kings coach Chase Buford wasn’t overly happy with the defensive effort in the first half but couldn’t fault it after half-time led by Wani Swaka Lo Buluk.

"I'm really proud of the guys especially in that second half I thought we really competed and guarded," Buford said. 

"In the first half that wasn’t who we are defensively and I didn’t think we had the competitive spirit and protection of the rim which are things we hang our hat on. 

"Swak shutting down Munford in the second half helped to give our team some life and sparked us on a little run to start the third quarter. From there we never really looked back."

Munford delivered 26 points, five assists, four rebounds and three steals for South East Melbourne with Mitch Creek adding 17 points, five boards and three assists, Brandon Ashley 13 points and seven rebounds, and Zhou Qi 12 points and seven boards.

Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell saw areas of improvement from recent games but ultimately not enough to avoid a fourth consecutive defeat.

"I thought we battled hard after a pretty tough road trip coming back (from Wollongong) in a short amount of time to prepare against a team that's in form," Mitchell said.

"You're going to have to live with a few errors because of the preparation so from that aspect, we had a goal to put pressure on the paint and really try to take advantage of their frontline missing Cooksy. 

"I thought we endeavoured to do our best there and the rewards probably didn’t pay off as much as I'd like, and we weren’t overly efficient. I thought we persevered and it might have even been our best performance for five or six games, but having said that there were some areas we fell short in again."

Jarell Martin was up for the challenge against Zhou Qi early for the Kings scoring his team's opening seven points even if it did take almost four minutes for their first score.

Jaylen Adams then hit a three for Sydney to lead 10-7 before Brandon Ashley entered for South East Melbourne to give them a spark with five quick points, but it was a score on the buzzer from Makur Maker that saw the Kings lead 23-22 at quarter-time.

Biwali Bayles scored to start the second quarter for Sydney but he didn’t last long after fouling Xavier Munford attempting a three. The Kings were outhustling the Phoenix, though, and went on a 9-2 run to lead 34-29 on the back of the work of Martin and DJ Vasiljevic.

The Phoenix regrouped despite the Kings being in the bonus four minutes into the second quarter. Cam Gliddon and Munford drained threes, then Zhou Qi scored six straight points and on the back of 12 offensive boards to four, South East Melbourne led 50-48 at the half.

Martin came out to give Sydney the perfect start to the second half with five quick points before Vasiljevic also drained a triple to give them a six-point lead.

Wani Swaka Lo Buluk also connected from deep to stretch the lead to seven for the visitors but Ashley helped turn the tide again with a huge block on Ian Clark up one end leading to an Izayah Le'afa three-point play up the other.

Despite that, Sydney still clung to a 70-67 three quarter-time advantage and that lead was doubled through a Vasiljevic three to start the fourth quarter.

A Tom Vodanovich three ball put Sydney up seven and then his and-one play made it eight. An alley-oop from Adams to Makur Maker saw the Kings still up eight but the Phoenix breathed life back into the contest with a three from Le'afa and bucket from Creek with four to go.

Sydney responded through Clark from deep but the game wasn't done yet. Eventually a three ball from Munford with just over two minutes to go brought South East Melbourne within a point.

Neither team would score until the final second but it was a smart play from Adams to run down the clock on the last possession for Sydney. His shot didn’t fall, but Martin grabbed the offensive rebound and was fouled with 0.8 seconds to go.

He missed the first but made the second for the 91-89 lead and South East Melbourne drew up a play in the timeout. It didn’t pay off with Kyle Adnam's pass failing to reach a teammate, going out of bounds and the game was done.

Next up for the Phoenix is a trip to Far North Queensland to play the Cairns Taipans on Friday while the Kings remain on the road to take on the Perth Wildcats next Saturday night at RAC Arena.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 16

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 89 (Munford 26, Creek 16, Ashley 13)

SYDNEY KINGS 91 (Martin 24, Vasiljevic 15, Adams 15) 

BOX SCORE