Vasiljevic inspires Sixers to win over Phoenix

The love affair that dual championship winner DJ Vasiljevic has with playing against the South East Melbourne Phoenix continued as he pulled the Adelaide 36ers out of the fire for the 96-93 NBL victory.

The Sixers played host to the Phoenix at Adelaide Entertainment Centre in the standalone Friday night game and for a half the building was deathly silent, and South East Melbourne were in complete control.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We&#39;re running out of superlatives for DJ Vasiljevic&#39;s shooting ?<br><br>Catch the action live on ESPN via Kayo ? <a href="https://t.co/QThwK7FJUl">pic.twitter.com/QThwK7FJUl</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1725459701326811300?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 17, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It was a Phoenix team featuring two former 36ers captains as well with Mitch Creek now accustomed to playing his old side, but it was seven-time Adelaide MVP Daniel Johnson's first appearance against them.

He has signed as an injury replacement player at the Phoenix for Gorjok Gak. While he got a warm reception when he hit the floor, his two three-pointers in the first half were met by stunned silence from the 7833 crowd.

South East Melbourne led by 17 points at quarter-time, 18 at the half and couldn’t have been more emphatic with what they did to the home team in the first half.

There was a complete transformation, though, after the break and it started with Adelaide going on a 10-2 run.

Kyrin Galloway hadn’t played in the first half, but hit a pair of three balls as part of another 11-0 Adelaide run that got them within a point.

Vasiljevic then hit an off-balance three ball on the buzzer going into three quarter-time to keep it a one-point game.

By the time Vasiljevic drained his third three, Adelaide was leading by eight with three minutes to go and while the Phoenix closed to within two, the Sixers held on to win by three in a game of dramatic momentum swings.

Vasiljevic fired Adelaide to the win scoring 20 of his 29 points in the second half against the same opponent he piled 42 points on last season when he was with the Sydney Kings.

Jacob Wiley also had 17 points and 14 rebounds for the winners and Next Star Trentyn Flowers came up big in 26 minutes for 13 points and nine rebounds.

Sixers coach CJ Bruton knows the importance of the result to steady his team at 4-7.

"Clearly you don't want to be 18 points down or anything like that, but you have to make some timely buckets and keep pressure on, and as the game wore on we did that," Bruton said.

"You need to find a way to win at home and be consistent if you're going to have a shot at making the playoffs, and having a chance at winning the championship and building momentum."

It was a tough loss to take for the Phoenix coming off a disappointing defeat to Melbourne United on Sunday. Alan Williams finished with 23 points and 11 rebounds. Creek added 20 points, Will Cummings 16 and Reuben Te Rangi 11.

It was a frustrated Phoenix coach Mike Kelly after another tough loss to take them to a 6-6 ahead of the FIBA break next weekend.

"I have a lot of feelings, but mostly bad ones after that," Kelly said.

"We had a lead at half that was really good and then they came out and kind of smacked us in the third quarter.

"Our guys responded and got back in a good spot, but the next time they went at us we didn’t respond as well and they finished, and we didn't."

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 8

ADELAIDE 36ERS 96 (Vasiljevic 29, Wiley 17, Flowers 13)

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 93 (Williams 23, Creek 20, Cummings 16)

BOX SCORE