STANLEY MATCH REPORT: Sobey inspires Phoenix over Hawks in OT

The South East Melbourne Phoenix take pride in playing at a frantic pace and outlasting their opponents and it took until overtime, but eventually it worked as they won another 124-113 shootout against the Illawarra Hawks.

Fresh off beating the Kings 124-117 in the highest scoring game of the NBL season on Monday night, the Phoenix and Hawks put on another spectacular offensive show on Thursday at the State Basketball Centre in Melbourne.

It had added feeling too as a rematch from last year's playoffs with the Hawks on the way to winning a championship and they needed a win to stay in touch with the top six.

South East Melbourne were attempting to consolidate second place too setting the stage for a contest that not only ended up featuring 237 points, but had plenty of drama, feeling, physicality and tension across all 45 minutes.

The Phoenix dominated the extra five minutes, though, with 18 points to seven with Nathan Sobey earning MVP chants from the home crowd on his way to 37 points, six rebounds, four assists and four steals.

Sobey racked up 13 of his equal career-high 37 points in the heated extra period after scores had been tied at 106 after four pulsating quarters.

Angus Glover buried a huge three-pointer with 4.8 seconds remaining to put the Phoenix up 106-104, before QJ Peterson equalised for the Hawks via a layup with 2.3 seconds left.

Somehow, the drama escalated from there.

Sobey dominated overtime, throwing down a dunk of the year contender over Mason Peatling, pulling off two more athletic finishes and getting to the foul line repeatedly.

FULL TIME STATS

Sobey: 37p/6r/4a/3stl
Glover: 22p/3r/2a/3stl
Mitchell: 16p/4r/2a
Foxwell: 15p/7r/6a/2stl
Hunter: 11p/5r
Iwundu: 7p/7r/2a
Clark: 6p/1r/1stl
Aliir: 6p/2r/3a/1blk
Brown III: 2p/5r/2a/3stl
Lewis: 2p/3r/2a/1stl

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