Cleveland Leads Adelaide Charge Over Tassie

Tuesday, December 20, 2022

The Adelaide 36ers produced a dynamic finish to overpower the Tasmania JackJumpers down the stretch sparked by Antonius Cleveland for Monday night's 93-82 home win.

Momentum is now building for the Sixers with a second straight home win with a new import signing pending. They were able to back up Saturday night's 31-point win over Brisbane by finishing over the top of the JackJumpers down the stretch.

Tasmania put themselves in a strong position once again having shaken off Adelaide's best first quarter of the season with 29 points. The JackJumpers held the Sixers to just 12 in the second to take a three-point lead into half-time.

Then on the back of a 9-3 start to the fourth quarter, Tasmania were up six before Cleveland took over the contest. In the next four minutes he nailed three bombs from long-range, scored on another dunk and set the tone for the home team.

The 36ers ended up outscoring the JackJumpers 24 points to seven from the moment they trailed by six to end up winning by 11 to leave both teams now on 8-8 records.

The signs were again encouraging for Adelaide with Cleveland shaking off first half foul trouble to put up 20 points and 10 rebounds.

Anthony Drmic stepped up again for 16 points on 5/7 shooting with Sunday Dech important with 12 points while Robert Franks contributed 11, Kai Sotto nine and Daniel Johnson eight – all on free-throws.

Adelaide coach CJ Bruton was especially glad that his team again started strongly to set the tone early.

"Today was a repeated success," Bruton said.

"We needed to repeat those effort levels and energy, and how we started against Brisbane was great.

"We didn’t want to be one hit wonders so to be able to continue to match the energy from the other teams to come out and compete, and battle and take a few things away early. That allowed us to get out and run before we calmed down a little bit."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The moment arrives, so does AC ?<br><br>Just like that, we're tied again!<br><br>Catch the ending of this <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> clash live on ESPN via Kayo Sports + Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/xpWaebg6PR">pic.twitter.com/xpWaebg6PR</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1604780570717757442?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Milton Doyle's second half was made tough by the defence of Cleveland but he still top-scored for the JackJumpers with 18 points and six rebounds.

Josh Magette added 13 points and six assists, Isaac White 12 points on 4/6 shooting, Jack McVeigh eight points and five rebounds, and Rashard Kelly eight points and three boards.

Tasmania coach Scott Roth felt that conceding 11 offensive rebounds to three in the second half was a key sign that Adelaide got on top in the effort areas.

"One of our focuses was making sure we take care of the glass and they just pounded us there in the second with seven offensive rebounds in the fourth," Roth said.

"That just fuelled them to get extra possessions and extra shots, and their work rate was much higher than ours. They made winning plays and that was it."

Antonius Cleveland picked up where he left off on Saturday with Adelaide's first five points of the game. When he knocked down a three as well, the Sixers were up 10-2 for a second straight flying start.

Robert Franks soon put them up 12-4 but as they so often do, the JackJumpers willed themselves back into the contest starting with Clint Steindl's three ball on his first start of NBL23.

Adelaide maintained an edge, though, and it was the introduction of Daniel Johnson into the game that helped see them still up 29-22 by quarter-time with their best opening quarter of the season.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">? You spin me... ?<br><br>Kelly puts the moves on for the TOUGH shot ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Sports + Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/NSPUqGF49Q">pic.twitter.com/NSPUqGF49Q</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1604775807288606720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Tasmania turned things quickly to start the second quarter with the visitors scoring nine consecutive points which included a three-pointer to Isaac White.

They weren’t able to take the lead until a Josh Magette bucket soon after, though, and the JackJumpers went into the half-time break leading 44-41 on the back of an extra nine field goals helped by five offensive rebounds to one, and nine second chance points to nil.

It was an aggressive Franks to start the second half with a triple and when fellow big man Kai Sotto nailed one from downtown as well the 36ers quickly regained the lead.

They were then up six all of a sudden with a three-point play to Sunday Dech on the back of 13 points in three minutes of the third quarter.

Tasmania did respond with the next six points and White inspired a 9-0 run with five points in his hometown for the JackJumpers to regain a seven-point lead.

The swings continued, though, and by three quarter-time Adelaide had drawn back level to set up a big finish.

It was the JackJumpers' turn to take back the momentum early in the fourth starting with a triple from Milton Doyle and tough fadeaway jumper from Rashard Kelly. Sean Macdonald hit a triple soon after to push the lead to six.

Adelaide needed a spark and it was Cleveland to provide it in stunning fashion. It started with consecutive three-pointers before a breakaway dunk to suddenly put the 36ers on top.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sotto getting ???? with it tonight ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Sports + Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/ZaxBUqp3tF">pic.twitter.com/ZaxBUqp3tF</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1604774299813810176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Then after Tasmania responded, again it was a Cleveland three-point bomb that put the 36ers up four and Mitch McCarron stretched it to six with two minutes to play.

Adelaide went on to score the game's last seven points to win by 11 to begin this four-game home stand with a second straight win.

Both teams play again before Christmas as well with the JackJumpers first up at home to the Illawarra Hawks on Thursday. The Sixers host the South East Melbourne on Christmas Eve.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 11

ADELAIDE 36ERS 93 (Cleveland 20, Drmic 16, Dech 12)

TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 82 (Doyle 18, Magette 13, White 12)

BOX SCORE