Phoenix Drop Another Game on the Road

After defeating the Taipans in Cairns, the Phoenix faced one of the quickest turnarounds this season. They had to contend with a three hour flight time, and a 1 pm tip-off.

It was a tough assignment in a must-win game; the travel seemed to have taken a toll early, with the 36ers racing out to a 10 point lead before the Phoenix got their legs under them and went into the first break down 25-18 down.

A three to Creek kicked off the second quarter, and by the five-minute mark, the scores were tied. The remainder of the second quarter saw both teams go bucket for bucket, with the full-court press of the Phoenix giving the 36ers some trouble. The visitors held a one-point lead at the half, 45-44.

A slow start to the third saw the Phoenix on their heels as the 36ers threatened to run away with the game. Captain Kyle Adnam scored eight straight points in the last 1:30 of the third to keep the Phoenix within six points down 69-63 at the end of the third.

The last quarter was all 36ers as they ran out nine-point winners.

Phoenix have a six day break before hitting the road to take on the Taipans again in a week.

The Result

36ers 100-92 Phoenix

The Numbers

Phoenix
Xavier Munford  24 points.
Mitch Creek 27 points, 11 rebounds

36ers
Daniel Johnson, 22 points, 10 rebounds.
Sunday Dech 21 points, 5 rebounds.

The Turning Point

In foul trouble early Brandon Ashley played limited minutes, only to step onto the court and commit his third foul less than 30 seconds into the third quarter.

The Player of the Game

Hard to find one for the Phoenix in what was a disappointing loss against a team they should have easily accounted for.

The Play of the Game

See above.

From the Coach

Simon Mitchel:
"The travel didn’t have a lot to do with it, we had everything to play for and we didn’t get the job done. You look at some of the numbers our team had and you think they had a good game,  but they're false numbers. It's endeavour fighting for positions on the floor, fighting for every square inch, fighting to box out and giving up your body, your flesh, giving up some bone on every possession and I thought we failed that test this afternoon."

From the Player

Kyle Adnam
"For me it's putting your body on the line and doing the little things we need to do to win a game, 18 offensive boards to our 20 defensive rebounds is just not good enough. We are in a dogfight now, we have Cairns, United, and New Zealand coming up and all those teams will fight, I challenge the boys and myself."

CLICK HERE for tickets to our next home game.

Phoenix Media (27/3/22)