Phoenix Stars Set New Club Scoring Benchmark in Win over Hawks

Shooting guard Cam Gliddon and his Phoenix teammates put on a clinic of team-orientated basketball in Sunday’s win over the previously undefeated Hawks, with five Phoenix players scoring 15 points in the victory.

Gliddon, Kyle Adnam, Mitch Creek, Keifer Sykes and Ben Moore all hit the mark, the first time the club has had five players score 15 or more points in the same game in franchise history and a sign of the offensive flow starting to enter the group.

Kendall Stephens’ seven points (3-3 FG) in seven minutes also lifted the crowd, as did the efforts of Yanni Wetzell (nine points) and Reuben Te Rangi (seven).

(The Phoenix are hoping to get on a roll this week in the Heartland with two games against Perth)

Gliddon says team balance is crucial to their success.

“That’s definitely a strength,” he said.

“We’ve had games where Creeky will have 30, Keifer will have 30, and they will have those games throughout the year but we know we’ve got weapons all over the floor and it’s just a matter of it all coming into place and I think it finally happened.

“We’ve still got Reuben who can catch fire, you saw Kendall come in for a little bit and put points on the board like it was nothing. It was a great team performance.

“We got weapons all over the court and I think that’s a tough thing to deal with when you’re the opposition when our bench is just as lethal as our starting group.”

Gliddon enjoyed a breakout game in Phoenix colours in front of his new home crowd at the State Basketball Centre, pouring in five triples in a rampant third quarter (the most of any quarter in his career) to set up the win.

Averaging over 2.3 triples a game, the 31-year-old ranks eighth in the league for three-pointers made.

“I loved it, I loved every minute out there,” he said.

“First time playing in the home venue and the crowd’s great, really got us over the line and pumped us up. It was just another level of excitement that I haven’t felt in a while. The fans get really close to the action, it gets loud in there and it’s a great environment.

“To get hot was good. The guys have been setting me up, I’ve been getting open shots all over the place and just tossing up some bricks, so it was great to see it go down and even better to get the win.”

Phoenix Coach Simon Mitchell implored Gliddon to keep shooting through his early season struggles and was delighted to see it fall his way on Sunday.

“It’s huge,” he said.

“He’s a lights-out shooter and he’s had a bit of bad luck. He’s getting good looks and we’ll continue to encourage him to shoot it.

(Coach Mitchell instills plenty of confidence in his sharpshooter)

“He knows exactly what his role is and even when the shots aren’t dropping, the job is getting done on the defensive end as well as creating offensively for others and spreading the floor – you can’t let him go. He was able to get away in that zone a little bit, find his space, get some really good looks and get his feet planted.

“That was always going to come from an elite shooter, it’s just taken a little while to get that up but it’s coming for him now and he’s been playing great for us.”

Mitchell also joked his shooting guard’s career-high triples in a quarter could have been even higher.

“He missed two in that third quarter he should’ve made too so he should’ve pushed that record out to seven.”

The Phoenix sit fourth on the NBL table with a 3-3 record and host the Wildcats at the State Basketball Centre on Thursday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 5:00pm.

TICKETS TO THE NEXT TWO HOME GAMES

Sam Bunn for Phoenix Media (09/02/2021)