Musashi Match Report: Phoenix Finish Regular Season in Fourth Place

South East Melbourne Phoenix's NBL21 regular season wrapped up with a 94-84 loss to the Bullets in Brisbane tonight, seeing them finish in fourth position on the ladder and qualify for their first finals campaign in club history.

The Tuesday night showdown at Nissan Arena was the final game of the #NBL21 regular season and barring a miracle 78-point win by Brisbane, South East Melbourne was locked into a maiden playoff berth.

All that was to be determined was if they finished in third or fourth spot, and the Bullets ensured that was fourth as they dominated much of the second half on their home floor to claim the 10-point victory.

The result means that South East Melbourne ends the season with a 19-17 record and will take on Melbourne United in a Throwdown Semi-Final match-up.

"I'm tremendously proud of the players," coach Simon Mitchell said post-game.

"It's been an extraordinarily difficult season for everybody but we've had a couple of extra hurdles to climb on top of what everyone has gone through. To come out and be in a position to play for a championship is extraordinarily exciting."

Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 restrictions, all three games will be held at Sydney's Qudos Bank Arena with no crowd.

"It's going to be an interesting match-up with varying styles," Mitchell said. "It's going to be a great challenge but we're certainly looking forward to it."

The Bullets might have lost their hopes of reaching the playoffs with a thrilling loss to Sydney on Saturday, but they wanted to farewell three-time championship winning coach Andrej Lemanis in the best possible way, and they certainly did so with a spirited performance on their home floor.

Brisbane's miracle of winning by 78 might have been going to happen, but they sure started on fire with a quick three to Lamar Patterson leading into an 8-2 start.

Ben Moore came on and his efforts on the glass helped South East Melbourne back into the game before Mitch Creek and Kyle Adnam knocked down threes, but the Bullets went on another 11-5 run to be up 25-21 by quarter-time.

Despite an early three in the second term, the Phoenix picked up the momentum with 10 straight points, and then soon after when Keifer Sykes nailed a three and Reuben Te Rangi finished off a spectacular pass from Creek through the legs of Patterson, the visitors were up 38-32.

They had the momentum but Brisbane turned it back around through Nathan Sobey. He had been scoreless but quickly put up 10 quick points capped off with a four-point play, and by half-time the Bullets led 49-48.

A three-point play from Anthony Drmic helped Brisbane's lead grow to six early in the third quarter, and they maintained that edge to still b up 69-65 by three quarter-time.

Drmic then sparked the Bullets to start the fourth quarter with four quick points and then when he knocked down a big three on the back of yet another offensive board for Brisbane, they led by a game-high nine points.

It grew to double-figures soon after and from there it became a free-throw fest down the stretch and the Bullets went on to win by 10 to farewell Andrej Lemanis on the best possible note and to consign the Phoenix to fourth spot and to a Throwdown semi-final series.

Mitch Creek led the Phoenix in scoring with 17, while Broekhoff (14) and Sykes (13) also troubled the scorers.

Ben Moore broke the NBL 40-minute record for offensive rebounds with a whopping 12 of his 16 boards coming on the offensive end.

Game one of the Phoenix's Semi-Finals series with Melbourne is on Friday night at 7:30pm AEST.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 21

BRISBANE BULLETS 94 (Patterson 19, Johnson 16, Sobey 16, Drmic 16)

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 84 (Creek 17, Broekhoff 14, Sykes 13) 

Phoenix Media (08/06/2021)