Sixers Build Confidence with Win Over United

Life after Craig Randall II has started well for the Adelaide 36ers with their stars able to settle better into roles best suited to them on the way to a hard earned 91-86 road win over Melbourne United on Thursday night.

The game signalled the resumption of NBL23 following a week off for the FIBA international window and with Melbourne looking to improve on being 5-5 after a rollercoaster start, and Adelaide to begin life without point guard Randall and build on being 3-4, there was plenty at stake.

Adelaide blew the game open early at John Cain Arena holding Melbourne scoreless for more than five minutes while scoring 14 straight points themselves, and really for the most part they were in the box seat the rest of the way.

That didn’t mean things didn’t get interesting late with Rayjon Tucker coming up huge in the fourth for Melbourne with 13 of his 23 points for the game including three three-point bombs.

However, Adelaide did enough to hold on despite their own five-minute scoring drought to start the fourth quarter and it was Robert Franks and Anthony Drmic coming up huge in the eventual five-point win.

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Franks is now finding his groove in Adelaide after a slightly slow start to his second NBL season. He finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds while Drmic had his best game of NBL23 too with 21 points and five boards. It's no coincidence his two best games have been without Randall.

Antonius Cleveland also was more involved than he has been with 15 points, five rebounds and three assists despite the six turnovers while the biggest plus was Mitch McCarron running the ship in his 199th NBL game.

He had 12 points, seven rebounds, five assists and four steals all the while getting booed by the fans who cheered him on his way to becoming a United championship winner.

Sixers coach CJ Bruton was proud of the fighting qualities his group showed to hold on for the win.

"I saw resilience and we've been in some tough spots in the early part of this season, and I was glad to see us dig ourselves out of it and find a way to execute and dig down deep and get some spots that we needed to get," Bruton said.

"We're still trying to find our groove and our identity, and are trying to build our vision of what you see as being your identity. We're nowhere near a finished product but I'm glad we were able to grind this one out on the road and come away with a win."

Tucker top-scored for Melbourne with 23 points with 4/6 shooting from downtown with Xavier Rathan-Mayes adding 15 points, four boards and two assists.

Mason Peatling made his return for 11 points with Chris Goulding shaking off a heavy third quarter knock for 10 points while the man of the moment, Isaac Humphries produced eight points, six rebounds, four assists and two blocks.

United coach Dean Vickerman took some positives especially with Peatling's return and Tucker's production late, but knows there's still lots to improve on.

"What I was pleased more about tonight was getting Mase back into the rotation with the energy that he gave us, and the confidence that he played with," Vickerman said.

"And then certainly Tuck tonight, we were down around 12 and he backed himself to go ahead and make shots. That got us back in the game and we had some reasonable execution to get decent looks on out of bounds plays, and different things with shots we'd think would normally for us.

"We are still having those patches where it gets sticky and we don’t move it, and we don’t share it enough for periods of time. That's something that is an area of our offence that has to be consistent and we haven’t got it consistent enough yet."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Mitch McCarron doing what he does best in game 200 ??<br><br>Catch the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> action live on ESPN via Kayo Sports + Foxtel <a href="https://t.co/Ao682C7XjS">pic.twitter.com/Ao682C7XjS</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1593163509461700608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 17, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Melbourne started well enough with the first three points of the game but then went on a five-minute scoring drought. During that time the 36ers made their best run of the season so far by scoring the next 14 points.

Anthony Drmic was feeling good hitting six of those 14 points for the 36ers before finally United broke the drought with a three-pointer from David Barlow with just over four minutes to quarter-time.

Antonius Cleveland responded immediately with a triple of his own for the Sixers but Melbourne worked back into the contest and scored 12 of the last 18 points of the opening term including a nice bucket to Xavier Rathan-Mayes on the buzzer to cut the Adelaide lead to 25-20.

Drmic knocked down a three-pointer to open the second quarter in style for the 36ers but then Melbourne was right back into the contest following long-range bombs from Rathan-Mayes as part of an 8-0 run.

Isaac Humphries soon put the home team in front, but it was only brief with Daniel Johnson and Robert Franks combining for a 5-0 run. Kai Sotto then came on and gave the Sixers a boost with some nice moves in the post as he hit three buckets to close the half.

However, two more triples from Goulding and another each to the returning Mason Peatling and Lachie Barker, and the Sixers were only up 51-50 at the break despite shooting 57 per cent. Melbourne was also going at 54 as well as hitting 8/17 from downtown.

It was all Adelaide to open the second half with the visitors hitting the first 10 points while again holding Melbourne scoreless for more than four minutes.

Franks hit five of those points for the Sixers as well before it was a spectacular way for Melbourne to score their first points of the half with Humphries running the floor, pulling off a crossover and then picture perfect pass to Peatling who confirmed the and-one.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Big Ice the point god? ? What can&#39;t he do tonight?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Sports + Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/mBbX0YCiLh">pic.twitter.com/mBbX0YCiLh</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1593179071898218496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 17, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Adelaide's lead grew to as much as 13 points and Melbourne's night got worse with Goulding felled in an accidental collision with Franks.

The Sixers remained in control leading 74-64 at three quarter-time but the game then took a dramatic turn to start the fourth.

Adelaide's offence completely dried up and they didn’t score until a Franks fadeaway jumper on an offensive board after almost four and-a-half minutes.

In between, Melbourne had scored the opening nine points with Rayjon Tucker leading the charge with five of those including a three-pointer.

That brought United back as close as a point and then again after Adelaide pulled away to a five-point edge, Melbourne responded with triples from Rathan-Mayes and Tucker to get back within one with three minutes to play.

The drama was building and again after Franks and Cleveland pushed Adelaide back out five, Tucker knocked down a third three of the quarter to keep things close.

It became a free-throw battle with Franks hitting four of them for the Sixers and Tucker two for Melbourne, and ultimately it was another for Adelaide to hold on and score the important five-point win.

Both teams back up to play again in Round 7 with United taking part in the Throwdown with the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Saturday before the Sixers take on the New Zealand Breakers in Auckland on Sunday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 7

MELBOURNE UNITED 86 (Tucker 23, Rathan-Mayes 15, Peatling 11)

ADELAIDE 36ERS 91 (Franks 21, Drmic 21, Cleveland 15) 

BOX SCORE