King proud of Foxwell's response

It's one thing to build a 23-point lead and go on to score a resounding win. It's another to give that up, fall down by five and respond to still win with Joe Wieskamp and Owen Foxwell coming up huge for the South East Melbourne Phoenix.

Phoenix coach Josh King had seen the movie before where his team had opened up a big lead during a third quarter only to see it disappear, and then end up in a tough to take loss.

All the signs were there of it happening again with South East Melbourne returning to John Cain Arena on Sunday and dominating the Adelaide 36ers to be leading by 18 points at half-time, and then 23 early in the third.

The Sixers soon scored 19 straight points and outscored them 45-17 to have their own five-point lead during the fourth quarter, but this time the Phoenix turned the tide back in their favour for the six-point win.

It was a crucial win too, with South East Melbourne moving to fourth with this Saturday's Throwdown to finish the regular season.

What most pleased King was that different players stepped up with the game on the line including a huge block in the last 20 seconds by Wieskamp which then saw him finish in transition up the other end.

Foxwell also grabbed a momentum shifting offensive rebound, made a crucial three-pointer, and three free throws late, while Nathan Sobey scored seven of his 26 points in the last couple of minutes.

"We let them back in and fortunately we made enough big plays in the fourth quarter, and had several guys make big plays," King said.

"Sobes was scoring the ball for us, Joe was getting physical rebounds and made a big block and obviously Foxy hit some big shots and free throws, and had that big offensive rebound.

"It was too close to comfort and probably should have never been that close. To find a way to come back and win, we were kinda low on energy there but hopefully we can not let this happen again.

"This was a game that we had in control and this one was one we had more control of."

While there was a lot of moments for King to be proud of with his team for bouncing back from losing in Perth on Friday night to win on Sunday, the emergence of Foxwell took the cake.

Continuing to step up in the absence of Derrick Walton Jr, Foxwell didn’t let a tough fourth quarter in Perth dent his confidence and he continued to make huge plays against Adelaide.

His numbers of 22 points and two assists with 5/9 three-point shooting tell part of the story of his influence, but his lone rebound was what King pointed to as the moment of the game.

"Foxy struggled late the other night and it says a lot just about his character and ability to flush things down the toilet and be ready to go the next time. He was tremendous for us today," King said.

"Especially scoring the ball there in that fourth quarter, he (Sobey) was huge for us and made several big shots, but I think if I had to say a play of the game, it was probably Foxy's offensive rebound there that sealed the game.

"It was a huge traffic rebound and he's the smallest guy on the floor. It was a great team effort."

While King does feel a degree of complacency might creep in when the Phoenix build a big lead, part of the issue could be that with the high intensity they play it might be difficult for the players to maintain that for 40 minutes.

However, having seen leads slip previously particularly on the road and in Sydney the most glaring examples, King hopes that his team pulling it out of the fire on Sunday is a sign that they are learning how to not let that be an on-going concern.

"I think you see when we're at our best and clicking, we're pretty good and when you're up by a significant margin, we have to stay concentrated and focused better for sure," King said.

"Hopefully we learn our lesson from this because it hasn’t really happened to us at home. When you're on the road it's difficult but there was some complacency tonight, but that's only human nature.

"As unhappy as I might have been about our third quarter, I'm ecstatic our guys found a way to win because at the end of the day that's the only thing anybody cares about is if we win or did we lose. We still found a way to win the game."