Late Creek Heroics Sees Phoenix Beat Taipans

With their season potentially on the line, the South East Melbourne Phoenix forced turnover after turnover on the Cairns Taipans during a game turning late 13-0 run to claim the 85-80 win to open Pride Round.

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It was the Phoenix's last home game of the season on Wednesday night at the State Basketball Centre and they did need to win to strengthen their hold on a top six position and a spot in the play-in tournament.

The Taipans were equally desperate to bounce back from their six-game winning run being ended by Tasmania last Friday and the Snakes were leading 71-68 halfway through the fourth quarter after consecutive DJ Hogg three balls.

From that point, though, the game underwent quite the transformation. The Phoenix would score the next 13 points including Mitch Creek forcing two turnovers himself leading to baskets.

The Phoenix also caused the Taipans to turn the ball over twice in the backcourt, also grabbed an offensive rebound and it was a Creek three ball the dagger blow in amongst it all.

That turned the game for good with the Phoenix winning a third straight since being upset by Brisbane to improve to 15-12 with just one game to go in their season – Sunday away to Sydney.

It's a second straight loss for Cairns since the return of Keanu Pinder but the Taipans remain second at 16-9.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">When the going gets tough Mitch Creek GETS GOING ??<br><br>The Phoenix are on a 9-0 run with just minutes remaining.<br><br>Catch the final moments live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel. <a href="https://t.co/q8qDvsB83D">pic.twitter.com/q8qDvsB83D</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1618196121201029120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 25, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Mitch Creek finished with 21 points, seven rebounds and three assists for South East Melbourne with Trey Kell III contributing 17 points, six boards and three assists, and Alan Williams 17 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks.

Gary Browne added 15 points and five assists, and Reuben Te Rangi an important 10 points.

Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell couldn’t have been prouder of his team's performance to make it three straight wins since that loss to Brisbane and for Kell to step up.

"I saw a lot of heart, I saw us overcome a lot of obstacles obviously losing Rowdy (Broekhoff) in the last game, we needed guys to step in and cover for him," Mitchell said. 

"I thought Trey Kell was huge. It was really important for him to hunt his offence a little bit more and that's one thing that Rowdy's been doing wonderfully well the last five games since he came back against Cairns. 

"We had a chat with Trey before the game about what we'd miss the most from Rowdy and we knew he could cover with the defence and help with boards, but needed him to hunt the ball. I thought he was tremendous doing that and he made some really key shots down the stretch."

DJ Hogg did what he could for the Taipans with 24 points, five rebounds, three assists and two blocks while knocking down 4/6 from beyond the arc.

Tahjere McCall added 14 points and nine rebounds but eight turnovers with Sam Waardenburg finishing with 14 points, 10 boards, four assists and three blocks, and Keanu Pinder 11 points and five rebounds.

Taipans coach Adam Forde credits the Phoenix for outplaying his team ultimately, but is confident a lot of what went wrong will be fixable over the last three games of the regular season.

"It definitely had a playoff vibe to it. Not to discredit what South East did, they were really good and really aggressive, and they got the ball where they wanted it to go on the block and attacked the paint," Forde said. 

"But I think we let ourselves down a lot. We made some real bad mental lapses at the wrong time of the game throughout and I thought we played a little bit frustrated. If you look at the stats and the one that jumps out the most was that we only had five assists at half-time. 

"That generally shows a lack of ball movement from our part. It's the second game in a week now where the ball's not moving around the floor as much as we'd like and we're doing it at the wrong time of the season."

The game opened with Keanu Pinder doing what he does best and getting out in the open floor to finish before the battle of big men continued. Alan Williams scored a couple of buckets for the Phoenix and Sam Waardenburg delivered a three-point play for the Snakes.

Williams soon had to sit with two fouls and the Taipans worked their way on top on the back of 10 points from DJ Hogg, including an and-one finish and a pair of three balls.

The Snakes would go on an 8-0 run to take a 24-19 lead into quarter-time on the back of shooting 50 per cent to 40, and getting to the foul line five times to two.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">DJ Hogg is putting in the WORK on the outside - he&#39;s shot the Snakes into a final quarter lead ?<br><br>Catch the final quarter of action live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel. <a href="https://t.co/azbewUvLz2">pic.twitter.com/azbewUvLz2</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1618193970592624640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 25, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Hogg scored a couple more baskets early in the second quarter to keep Cairns up six, but the Phoenix were working their way back into the contest and it was Gary Browne leading the charge.

He scored seven quick points in the second period to make it a one-point game and eventually a Trey Kell III three-pointer saw the Phoenix regain the lead.

It was a first half full of whistles with 27 fouls called and 25 free-throws taken, and when it was all said and done South East Melbourne went into the break leading ever so narrowly 44-43.

The Phoenix came out and hit the opening seven points of the second half including a three to Kell to push their lead out to eight. That turned into an 11-2 start to put the home team up 10, but the Taipans quickly responded.

The Snakes scored the next six points and Tahjere McCall helped bring them back within two before the quarter ended with Pinder helped to the changerooms bleeding from his face after a stray forearm under the basket from Dane Pineau.

South East Melbourne still led 62-58 but it didn’t take long into the fourth for Cairns to assume the lead on the back of a 7-0 run starting with a three-pointer from Bul Kuol.

Hogg knocked down his third and fourth bombs of the night to put the Taipans on top by three, but was South East Melbourne's turn to respond. Kelly hit the next five points and the Phoenix were back up three with four minutes to play.

That became four with a Creek steal and layup 30 seconds later. Creek forced another turnover on the very next possession which led to a Reuben Te Rangi free-throw. They got the ball back on his miss, Creek nailed a dagger three and the Taipans only just survived yet another backcourt turnover.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Alan Williams is putting on a ?????? down low. The big fella is going to WORK down low ?<br><br>Catch the action live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel. <a href="https://t.co/H4tVPvhSon">pic.twitter.com/H4tVPvhSon</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1618178415013810178?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 25, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

But South East Melbourne had taken over leading by eight and that became 10 when Kell landed two free-throws when McCall fouled out with just over two minutes to play which was enough to seal the win.

The Phoenix now only have one game to go in the regular season and that's on Sunday on the road to the defending champion Sydney Kings. 

The Taipans still have three games to go including at home to the Brisbane Bullets on Saturday and Adelaide 36ers on Monday before a trip west to play the Perth Wildcats next Friday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 17

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 85 (Creek 21, Williams 17, Kell III 17)

CAIRNS TAIPANS 80 (Hogg 24, McCall 14, Waardenburg 14) 

BOX SCORE