Phoenix dominate Throwdown to close in on finals

The South East Melbourne Phoenix have taken a giant leap towards locking in their first ever NBL playoffs appearance with an emphatic 94-83 Throwdown win over Melbourne United on Sunday.

The Phoenix broke the game open late in the third quarter and to start the fourth term including a huge three-point play and a foul from dynamic point guard Keifer Sykes.

They went on a 13-2 run ultimately either side of three quarter-time and then held firm down the stretch to hold out their crosstown rivals and score a third straight victory that strengthens their hold on a top four position.

South East Melbourne improves to a 17-14 record on the season as a result of the win to remain clear in third position and now with Sykes back to run the point and with plenty of help around him, they look capable of being a serious challenge come finals time to Melbourne and the Perth Wildcats.

Melbourne wasn’t quite able to back up Thursday's win in Perth and they did look tired on the back of that hard fought contest, and the trip west but they remain on top spot at 23-7.

To South East Melbourne's credit, they ended winning the rebound count despite having eight less than Melbourne in the opening half while having just the nine turnovers and limiting United to shooting 6/24 from three-point range.

Keifer Sykes was a powerful weapon for the Phoenix as he rediscovers the form he started #NBL21 with. He finished with 26 points and six assists while Mitch Creek was aggressive and effective with 14 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.

Yanni Wetzell also had 12 points and six rebounds, Kyle Adnam 11 points and three assists, and Reuben Te Rangi nine points and five rebounds.

Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell was understandably delighted with the performance.

"Today was a pleasing game. I thought that was our best performance in a long while," Mitchell said.

"I'm really pleased with the boys and I think we were solid, and then some of the things that we didn’t do well in the first half we talked about and covered, and then made up for in the second half. 

"That was impressive especially in that third quarter and that's something that we've probably struggled with in our down time."

Melbourne dearly missed Yudai Baba especially with what he could have provided defensively against Sykes while Chris Goulding took a knock early limiting his time to 20 minutes even though he still had 13 points.

Jock Landale top-scored for United with 19 points with Scotty Hopson adding 11, Mitch McCarron nine (seven rebounds, six assists), Sam McDaniel nine and Mason Peatling eight.

United coach Dean Vickerman gave credit to the Phoenix for making their life difficult, but ultimately felt his team just didn’t shoot or execute well enough.

"It was a good Throwdown contest. Credit to Simon and their coaching staff, they did a hell of a job," Vickerman said. 

"They played a little bit bigger tonight and I think that helped them defensively at times, but we had the nine turnovers again in the first half and the points off turnovers became a big fact. 

"And then the back end of the last five minutes of the third, they scored 18 points with eight of those second chance points off offensive rebounds. That little part there broke the game open and we didn’t finish well enough or shoot the ball well enough in the fourth quarter to give ourselves a chance."

Despite a couple of early threes for Melbourne from Sam McDaniel, it was South East Melbourne who led a first-half high of five points at 15-10 midway through the first term after a triple from Reuben Te Rangi.

But with Melbourne pulling in 11 rebounds to five, they fired back thanks to Jock Landale to tie scores up at 20-20 after one.

The Phoenix continued to make huge plays to start the second quarter with three-point bombs from Keifer Sykes, Ryan Broekhoff and Mitch Creek with Ben Moore adding an and-one play in there too.

But Landale was keeping United close on his way to 12 points for the opening half and with them continuing to dominating the glass, scores were still level at the main break at 43-43.

Things were still tight for most of the third quarter and South East Melbourne led by just one after a David Barlow triple for Melbourne. But from there the Phoenix closed the quarter on an 8-2 run to lead 71-63 with a quarter to play.

South East Melbourne then opened the fourth quarter on fire with a four-play from Skyes seeing the lead balloon to 14 points. A Yanni Wetzell three-point play maintained a double-digit lead but Melbourne still had one last run in them.

When Chris Goulding banked in a three ball to bring the margin back to five, but the Phoenix had the answers and Wetzell again closed the door on the eventual nine-point Throwdown win.

United heads to Wollongong on Tuesday to face the Illawarra Hawks while the Phoenix are in Brisbane against the Bullets on Saturday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 18

MELBOURNE UNITED 83 (Landale 19, Goulding 13, Hopson 11)

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 94 (Sykes 26, Creek 14, Wetzell 12) 

BOX SCORE