Phoenix Beat Sixers to Keep on Rolling

Monday, December 12, 2022

The South East Melbourne Phoenix continue to build some ominous momentum with another strong performance from start to finish at home on Sunday to beat the Adelaide 36ers 102-84.

On the back of Thursday night's franchise record 39-point win against the Illawarra Hawks, the Phoenix were back at John Cain Arena on Sunday hosting a 36ers team needing a response after losing at home to Perth on Friday.

However, it didn’t come with Adelaide suffering a third straight loss and South East Melbourne making it three consecutive wins having been in control virtually all afternoon on their home floor.

While the 36ers did keep fighting, they just couldn’t do anything to limit the all-round offensive weapons the Phoenix had. What continues to shine out is how much they continue to miss that third import since the departure of Craig Randall II.

The Phoenix offence did virtually as they pleased in the first half with Trey Kell III and Alan Williams scoring 16 of their 27 opening quarter points before Mitch Creek scored the majority of his 18 first half points in the second term.

That had South East Melbourne in control up 13 with 56 first half points and Adelaide could never seriously threaten in the second half. The Phoenix cruised to the 18-point win to improve to 10-6 on the season with the 36ers sliding to 6-8.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Throw it ?? for big Zhou! ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live and free on 10 Peach and 10play | live on ESPN via Kayo Sports + Foxtel <a href="https://t.co/vLgz6cguu5">pic.twitter.com/vLgz6cguu5</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1601795234043527169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

On the back of his 18 first half points, Creek finished with a game-high 24 for the Phoenix to go with eight rebounds, four assists and two steals.

Kell ended up with 20 points as well while Williams was a powerful force down low with 18 points and four rebounds in only 18 minutes through foul trouble.

The signs were good again with Zhou Qi who had 11 points and 10 rebounds in 21 minutes.

South East Melbourne coach Simon Mitchell still saw areas to improve on, but couldn’t be too dissatisfied overall.

"We were pretty sharp without being great," Mitchell said.

"I thought one of the issues, and I don't mean this to sound disrespectful, was that I thought we got anything we wanted early and sometimes we just took the wrong option.

"It was like we could get a better shot if we kicked the ball around the horn a couple of times so we didn’t always need to get a first shot on the first sight of our offence. I think there's areas we could have been better with our decision-making but I'm not going to complain about 100 and whatever points."

It was a second rough loss of the round for Adelaide with Robert Franks top-scoring with 18 points and eight rebounds.

Nick Marshall was a shining light scoring 15 points with Daniel Johnson and Sunday Dech adding 10 apiece. Captain Mitch McCarron fought valiantly on his old home floor too for eight points, nine rebounds and four assists.

Adelaide coach CJ Bruton just felt the non-negotiables coming into the game weren’t met by his group.

"We wanted the energy and effort to be good knowing when you play two games like that with such a short turnaround you at least have to bring those things to the table," Bruton said.

"Then seeing in that first quarter the way they were able to get 27 points is not the right tone that you're setting. We had some good looks early and didn’t make them, but Phoenix lived at the free-throw line again.

"They got there 28 times and they are up there in the league doing that, and do it different ways. We were trying to take that away from them and also the three-point line, and you can't take everything away."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">In case you missed it... Sunday ???????? it! <br><br>Dech looking like Tom Brady with that dime ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live and free on 10 Peach and 10play | live on ESPN via Kayo Sports + Foxtel <a href="https://t.co/ClbPaRKAMj">pic.twitter.com/ClbPaRKAMj</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1601791336478216193?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Adelaide was able to hold South East Melbourne scoreless for almost the first three minutes of the game and scored the opening five points themselves with a triple from Sunday Dech and bucket to Robert Franks.

Eventually Gary Browne opened the Phoenix account 2:40 into the game and then Alan Williams and Trey Kell III followed up to put the home team on top.

The Sixers had started well, though, and a big breakaway dunk from Antonius Cleveland put a stamp on it, but then South East Melbourne took over.

The Phoenix scored the next nine points and by quarter-time with eight points each to Kell and Williams, they were on top 27-18 thanks to shooting 50 per cent to 33, 14 rebounds to nine and forcing the Sixers into the four turnovers.

A three-point play from Mitch Creek and then triple from Browne pushed the Phoenix lead out to 15 early in the second before a three to Franks and nice mid-range jumper from Nick Marshall at least kept Adelaide in touch.

Triples later in the quarter from Marshall and then Kyrin Galloway did the same, but the Phoenix were doing almost as they pleased offensively led by former Sixers captain Creek.

He ended up with 18 points for the half including three bombs from long-range in the second period with the Phoenix cruising to the 56-43 edge at the long break.

A Ryan Broekhoff triple to open the second half set the tone again for South East Melbourne before the home team pushed away further to close the third term.

Kell added another three ball and then Zhou Qi was aggressive inside before buckets to Reuben Te Rangi and Kyle Adnam saw them lead 78-60 by three quarter-time.

Williams was able to avoid fouling out for a few minutes of the fourth quarter to add five more strong points before Kell hit his fourth three of the night to push the lead out to 19.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The bucket at one end, the stop at the other - Gary Browne is starting to ???? at the Fire Pit ?‍?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live and free on 10 Peach and 10play | live on ESPN via Kayo Sports + Foxtel <a href="https://t.co/pnKgrVUWS3">pic.twitter.com/pnKgrVUWS3</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1601784674447024128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 11, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

From there they cruised to the 18-point win to make it a 57-point winning weekend across the two games.

The Phoenix now prepare for another Throwdown with Melbourne United on Thursday night while the 36ers return home to host Sam Mackinnon's Brisbane Bullets on Saturday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 10

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 102 (Creek 24, Kell III 20, Williams 18)

ADELAIDE 36ERS 84 (Franks 18, Marshall 15, Johnson 10, Dech 10)

BOX SCORE