Red-hot South East Melbourne Phoenix have moved to 3rd on the NBL ladder by thrashing the Adelaide 36ers 102-84 at John Cain Arena.
Mitch Creek (24 factors) and Trey Kel (20) starred on Sunday for the title-contending Phoenix, whose third successive win lifted them forward of Cairns.
Import Robert Franks (18 factors) and unsung improvement wing Nick Marshall (15 factors in 17 minutes) led the cost for the Sixers, who plummeted emphatically to their third consecutive defeat, with their season quick slipping away.
“We were pretty sharp without being great,” Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell mentioned.
“There’s areas where we could have been better with our decision making but I’m not going to complain about (scoring) 102 points.”
Adelaide opened proceedings with the primary two triples whereas Antonius Cleveland threw down an enormous windmill dunk halfway by the primary time period.
But that quarter – and the remainder of the match – was in any other case completely dominated by Phoenix.
The mixture of Kel and Alan Williams helped SEM ease forward 27-18 on the first change, whereas Creek’s 14-point second time period stretched Phoenix’s benefit to 13 at halftime.
Sunday Dech’s fullcourt go with 1.6 seconds remaining earlier than halftime to Franks for a layup on the buzzer failed to provide the guests the momentum they wanted within the third.
Adelaide continued to throw away turnovers in assault whereas discovering themselves opened up defensively.
Touted as one of many competitors’s large improvers pre-season, the 36ers fell additional and additional behind because the second half wore on, nervous by Zhou Qi’s dimension within the paint and regularly unable to seek out a solution for Creek.
“I thought in that first quarter, seeing them get 27 points, it’s not the right tone that you’re setting,” Sixers coach CJ Bruton mentioned.
“We gave them everything they wanted and they had their way with us at different times.”
