"No fear" Adelaide ready to storm up standings

Those teams currently occupying a top six position need to be keeping an eye on their rear-view mirror, because the Adelaide 36ers are storming home to finish this regular season and, according to interim head coach Scott Ninnis, they fear no one.

The 36ers have won three of their last four games to surge to eight wins on the season, and although they still remain bottom of the NBL ladder, they’re one of the in-form teams in the competition.

Wednesday night’s dominant victory over an injury-depleted South East Melbourne came without the services of star forward and barometer Jacob Wiley. Rotation big Kyrin Galloway stepped into the breach alongside Isaac Humphries and Trey Kell III to lead the side to a 25-point victory.

“It’s exciting to have a win like that. We haven’t done things all that easy at times this year but to jump out to a good lead and be able to maintain it for the majority of the game is great,” Ninnis said following the win.

“I think we’ve got to the stage now where there’s no one in the competition we fear. We can go in comfortably knowing our best is good enough to win games of basketball and that’s especially pleasing to me.

“We had the hiccup last week against Cairns but we’ve been so poor on the road this year – in fact that’s our first win in Australia, we beat New Zealand over there – I think it’s especially pleasing, you can feel we’re building as a group, the confidence is there, and it was really important to get that win.

“[I’m] taking nothing for granted, but I expected to come here and win this game. The margin surprised me, but it didn’t surprise me to come in here and win that game.

“The league is so open this year and there’s no reason if the team gets on a roll we can’t start pushing up the ladder a little bit.”

Galloway’s career-best performance has led Ninnis to declare the 24-year-old will play “extended minutes” in Saturday’s clash with Illawarra.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Put-back KING ?<br><br>Kyrin Galloway got up for a pair of monster put-back dunks ?<br><br>Catch the action live on ESPN via Kayo ? <a href="https://t.co/hrxiaal8I6">pic.twitter.com/hrxiaal8I6</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1747543162921345040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 17, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The former Breaker started in lieu of the injured Wiley and formed a lethal one-two post punch with in-form center Humphries, and the pair ended the game as Adelaide’s two top scorers in the absence of Alan Williams and defensive stopper Craig Moller for the Phoenix.

Galloway registered a career-high 23 points on a remarkable 8-10 shooting, which included hitting five of his seven three-point attempts. He also had seven rebounds and a trademark block.

“What ‘KG’ gives us is that point of difference from our other bigs being such a threat from the perimeter,” Ninnis continued.

“We felt going into the game he was an obvious one to start. Isaac draws so much attention and he’s having an incredible few weeks at the moment and that’s taking the pressure off of everyone else.

“The ability to have someone to stretch the floor and you have to defend is a blessing for us. KG has put his hand up to play extended minutes now and that will certainly continue this weekend against Illawarra and it’s hard to see that changing moving forward.”

Galloway praised Humphries’ form in allowing him to receive open shots.

“Tonight, he drew it seemed like five guys at times, and we had wide open threes and cuts. He was a big part of our win today,” the Foot Locker Player of the Game said.

“My teammates have been good at keeping my confidence up, when I’m not shooting well they’re telling me to keep shooting and keep my head up.

“We were putting so much pressure on ourselves before with the wooden spoon, and there was a lot of outside noise, we’ve refocused on ourselves as a group, we know how good we are and we have each other’s backs. I think it’s making an obvious difference on the court and in the way we play.”

Adelaide will face fellow resurgent side Illawarra on Saturday night, and while Ninnis declared the 36ers don’t fear anyone in the competition, he was quick to praise Illawarra’s improvement under fellow interim coach Justin Tatum.

“We go in there confidently, we know they’re playing well, the turnaround they’ve had is astonishing and they’re ready to be commended for it,” Ninnis said.

“I think in a little way it’s given us some inspiration being in a similar situation that we can do a similar sort of thing, and thankfully at the moment we’re starting to do that."

Adelaide’s clash with Illawarra tips off on Saturday night at 8pm AEDT, live on ESPN via Kayo.