Sydney Kings: Champions of NBL26

Bryce Cotton was on track to lead the Adelaide 36ers to glory but the Sydney Kings got Championship Series Game 5 to overtime and took control to win the NBL26 title with the 113-101 victory in front of a record NBL crowd.

A crowd of 18,589 was on hand at Qudos Bank Arena on Easter Sunday and after one of the most dramatic first four games of the Championship Series, it went up another level in the decider.

Adelaide did lead by seven points at three quarter-time and were still up six with just over two minutes to play after a four-point play from six-time MVP Cotton in his first season with the 36ers.

Three more Cotton free throws with 41.4 seconds to go had Adelaide up four, but then Kendric Davis scored for Sydney. After he missed a tough three, Tim Soares got a massive offensive rebound and put it back to get the game to an extra five minutes.

And with the Sixers seeing Flynn Cameron and Nick Rakocevic fouled out, the Kings had the momentum and capitalised on some huge turnovers to ignite the record crowd with 18 to six in the overtime period to win the NBL26 championship and make it three titles in five seasons.

After being runner-up MVP to Cotton the past two seasons, Davis celebrates a championship as the MVP of the series with another 35 points and 14 assists in Game 5.

Matthew Dellavedova put in a tireless effort all five games guarding Cotton and after losing Game 5's with Melbourne United the past two seasons, is now an NBL and NBA champion.

He had 11 points, three rebounds and three assists while hitting 3/5 from deep having gone 6/17 in the series prior.

Soares was a monster again with 20 points and seven rebounds on 8/11 shooting with three-time champion Xavier Cooks adding 19 points, 12 boards, four assists and three steals, Jaylin Galloway 16 points and six rebounds, and Torrey Craig six points, nine rebounds and two assists.

Cotton finished with 35 points and nine assists in 6/13 three-point shooting and going 11/11 at the line while playing all 45 minutes for Adelaide.

Zylan Cheatham had 15 points, 12 rebounds and six assists, Isaac Humphries 14 points and nine rebounds, John Jenkins 13 points and before fouling out, Rakocevic 11 points and 13 rebounds.

The big men got going early for either team with Tim Soares scoring Sydney's first four points and Isaac Humphries the first four for Adelaide.

When Bryce Cotton hit a third three ball of the first quarter, the 36ers were up five and still leading by two by quarter-time with the five three-point makes and seven o-boards to the four and eight in those categories from the Kings.

A couple of times during the second quarter did Adelaide threaten to push out to a handy lead up by five and Cotton did have the 18 points and four assists in the half. But the Kings finished with a 9-2 run to hold the narrowest of leads at 56-55.

Just as Matthew Dellavedova lit up the record NBL crowd with back-to-back threes for Sydney, Adelaide made their move with triples heading into three quarter-time from Cotton, DJ Vasiljevic and John Jenkins to have a game-high seven-point edge.

The 36ers remained in control through most of the fourth quarter. It did appear that a trademark four-point play from Cotton and then free throws when Dellavedova fouled him shooting a three with 41 seconds to go could be enough.

That had the Sixers still up four but it was a monstrous offensive rebound and putback from Soares with 4.6 seconds to go that tied scores up. The game went to overtime when Cotton couldn’t make a tough layup in traffic.

The overtime was then all the Kings and after Zylan Cheatham kept Adelaide within one with their first five points. Sydney forced some huge turnovers leading to breakaway buckets for Jaylin Galloway and Makuach Maluach, and it was time to celebrate in front of the record home crowd.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL26 CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES – GAME 5

SYDNEY KINGS 113 (Davis 35, Soares 20, Cooks 19)

ADELAIDE 36ERS 101 (Cotton 35, Cheatham 15, Humphries 14)

BOX SCORE

Sydney Kings wins best-of-five series 3-2