Phoenix Start Season 2-0

The Result:

South East Melbourne Phoenix 95-88 New Zealand Breakers 

A dominant Mitch Creek has led South East Melbourne Phoenix to an unbeaten start to the new NBL season.

Riding a red-hot opening term and Creek’s career night, the Phoenix leapt out to a big lead, watched as the Breakers whittled it away and then finished with a flurry to put the 95-88 result to bed and improve to 2-0.

This Phoenix team has a thing for breaking records in NBL22.
After last week holding the Breakers to their lowest scoring half ever, Creek and company came out in a blaze of glory, hitting from all over the court to pile on the highest scoring quarter in Phoenix history - 35 points.

Creek hit a trio of three-pointers as the Phoenix made six of their seven tries from the outside, with Xavier Munford (2), Ryan Broekhoff and Kyle Adnam getting in on the action.

Facing a 13-point quarter-time deficit, Breakers forward Finn Delany was spurred into action, his 13 points getting the Kiwis back into it.
And New Zealand’s rearguard action twice brought the scores level in the third, before a dunk, and then a three from Creek kept the Phoenix in front.

The challenge came again early in the last quarter, but Isaiah Le’Afa broke out of his shooting slump with a sweet floater and then a trey to spark a 7-0 run that would keep the Phoenix in front for good.

Breakers French import Hugo Besson hit three late threes on his way to 26 points in a vain comeback attempt as Creek scored his 32nd and 33rd points on a sweet fadeaway and capped it off in style with a walkoff three-pointer that put the result beyond doubt and gave him the highest individual points total ever by a Phoenix player.

Fresh off his own standout performance last week, import guard Xavier Munford was brilliant again, this time playing Robin to Creek’s Batman with 17 points and 6 assists.

For the Breakers, Delany dropped 23 points, while ex-Phoenix centre Yanni Wetzell toiled hard against his former team with 18. 

The numbers:

Phoenix
Mitch Creek 36 points, 6 3P FGM
Xavier Munford 17 points, 6 assists 
Kyle Adnam 16 points

Breakers
Hugo Besson 26 points, 8 rebounds, 4 3P FGM
Finn Delany 23 points, 5 3P FGM
Yanni Wetzell 18 points 

The turning point:

After whiffing in the first quarter, the Breakers threatened all night. But this was Creek’s game and, as the Phoenix struggled to put them away, his three-pointer with 3.44 to go in the game stretched the lead to double digits. Zhou Qi’s massive rejection of Wetzell late in the third quarter as the Breakers challenged gets an honourable mention. The Breakers would have cut the lead to just two, instead, Creek and then Kyle Adnam would add two each on consecutive plays to maintain the buffer. 

The Player of the Game:

Mitch Creek
Switched on from the moment Qi convincingly won the opening tip, the Phoenix’s best player was unstoppable all night. Creek could not miss from deep early, then went into his bag to burrow into the teeth of the Breakers’ defence with strong finishes amongst the tall timber, before catching fire again from deep.

The Play of the Game:

It could have been any one of the six three pointers the Phoenix drained in the opening quarter. But Creek produced a number of highlight-reel worthy moments, none better-executed than his third quarter dunk that broke a 58-58 deadlock. Off a perfect screen from Ryan Broekhoff, Creek slid baseline and rose to hammer it down with the left hand, Breakers Next Star Ousmane Dieng opting for self-preservation, instead of contesting.

From the coach:

“I think we’ve got a mindset this year that we’ve got standards we’ve set around the place that we just can’t live with (failing to meet). I’m going to tip the hat, there was some damn good shot-making. It was a really high-level offensive performance at times, but we’ve got to be able to dig in a little better than we did tonight.”
-Simon Mitchell 

From the player:

“I thought offensively, we flowed better, but defensively, we feel like we’re a much better defensive unit than that. I’m a little bit disappointed in some areas but, in saying that, we kept the scoreboard ticking over. I just wanted to be aggressive tonight.”
-Mitch Creek