Anzac's Breakout Game Impresses Coach Kelly

And it impressed new head coach Mike Kelly.

“I was really impressed by Anzac, I thought he came in, played with great strength and was really assertive,” Kelly told Phoenix Media.

The 20-year-old, who will enter his second season as a development player on the Phoenix roster, was a force against the US College team, California Baptist, in the 87-62 victory.

Rissetto scored 13 points, reigned in four rebounds and was perfect from the line from five attempts, shooting 80 per cent from the field from 17 minutes of game time.

His breakout game aligned with the introduction of a vastly new roster, with Ben Ayre, Rhys Vague and Gorjok Gak all turning out for the first time for South East Melbourne.

Gak proved a focal point in the game both on and off-the-court, playing against his alma mater and the coach he played under for the first time.

Coach Kelly commended Gak on dealing with the pressure of coming up against his former team and teammates, the 6”11 centre leading the way for the home side with nine rebounds.

The team now shifts their focus to the two remaining pre-season games ahead of the NBL Blitz in mid-September.

The developing side still have a few kinks to work out according to Kelly, but he remains optimistic about the roster at his disposal.

“Our goals are to learn how to play with each other, look to communicate and just compete,” Kelly said.

“We were a bit sloppy at times (against California Baptist) but it was fun to see the guys work together and work things out together.”

The Phoenix take on Adelaide 36ers on Friday, September 1 as the pre-season ramps up.

<iframe width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1594833414&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true"></iframe><div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/semphoenix" title="South East Melbourne Phoenix" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">South East Melbourne Phoenix</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/semphoenix/anzac-rissetto-on-yarra-valley-fm-170823" title="Anzac Rissetto on Yarra Valley FM (17.08.23)" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Anzac Rissetto on Yarra Valley FM (17.08.23)</a></div>

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