New faces shoot Phoenix to pre-season win

DJ Mitchell is back in the NBL this season and showed he's ready to shoot his way to an impact with five three-pointers as the South East Melbourne Phoenix had a 108-86 pre-season win over the Cairns Taipans.

The Phoenix had most of their squad available at the State Basketball Centre in Melbourne on Tuesday night and there was plenty to like with Mitchell showing the way with 19 points and seven rebounds with 5/7 three-point shooting.

Akech Aliir has crossed to South East Melbourne for NBL26 too and had 16 points and nine rebounds while Nathan Sobey is gearing up to lead the Phoenix again with another 13 points and five assists.

New import point guard Hunter Maldonado did have 11 points, five rebounds and five assists too with Next Star Malique Lewis contributing 11 points and eight boards, and versatile import Vrenz Bleijenbergh eight points with a couple of three-pointers.

Alex Higgins-Titsha has been upgraded to a full roster spot with the Taipans this season and he was impressive with 15 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Kody Stattmann also had 15 points and three rebounds for the Snakes, Kyle Adnam 13 points and five assists, Lachlan Barker 12 points, four rebounds and three assists, Mawot Mag 12 points, two steals and two blocks, and Kyrin Galloway 10 points, four boards and two blocks.

It was a first pre-season game for both teams ahead of NBL26 and it was the Phoenix closer to full strength just without new import John Brown III along with Owen Foxwell and Angus Glover.

The Snakes have made a big splash over their past couple of weeks with the announcement of their NBL26 roster, but Admiral Schofield, Sam Waardenburg, Ashton Hagans, Reyne Smith, Jack McVeigh and Marcus Lee weren’t on hand on Tuesday night.

There were good signs for the Phoenix with Josh King entering his first full season in charge as coach as they put up 29 points to 19 against the Taipans in the first quarter, and 29 to 20 in the second to be leading 58-39 by half-time.

The lead for South East Melbourne got out to 26 in the third quarter but Cairns finished the period strongly with a couple of three balls from Kyle Adnam and impressive finishes from Alex Higgins-Titsha.

In the end, the Phoenix went on to win the game by 22 points but more importantly was the encouraging signs they got out of it. Considering Cairns were missing their three imports, two Boomers fresh off the Asia Cup triumph and Waardenburg, it was more about getting a run for Adam Forde's men he did have out there.

The Taipans will remain in Melbourne to take on Melbourne United on Thursday night at Casey Stadium before then returning home to Cairns to face the Brisbane Bullets in a pre-season Sunshine Stoush on Sunday. The Phoenix will then play United in a pre-season Throwdown on Saturday night back at the State Basketball Centre.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL PRE-SEASON 2025/26

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 108 (Mitchell 19, Aliir 16, Sobey 13)

CAIRNS TAIPANS 86 (Stattmann 15, Higgins-Titsha 15, Adnam 13)

BOX SCORE

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