Phoenix blow away Kings at Blitz

The South East Melbourne Phoenix drained 19 three-pointers and showed their offensive firepower wrapping up their time at the CODE Sports NBL Blitz in Canberra beating the Sydney Kings 102-81.

The last day's action at the Blitz in Canberra featured two teams looking for a first win with the Phoenix having lost back on Friday in a high-scoring affair to the New Zealand Breakers while the Kings were overrun by the Brisbane Bullets on Thursday.

South East Melbourne also welcomed in new import power forward John Brown III for the first time while the Kings did remain without superstar guard signing Kendric Davis.

It was a promising start from the Phoenix as they raced out to a 28-16 advantage by quarter-time and then extending that lead to 55-42 by the half-time break.

It was a hot shooting performance in the opening half from the Phoenix to see them put up those 55 points already in the space of 20 minutes after they did also score 101 against the Breakers back on Friday even with the eventual loss.

After South East Melbourne pushed out to a 16-point lead early in the third quarter, Sydney found some momentum for the first time in the game starting with a three ball to Shaun Bruce.

When Lueth Awan added another shortly after the Kings were all the way back within four points, but the Phoenix answered and were back up 12 by three quarter-time with a triple on the buzzer from Hunter Maldonado.

South East Melbourne kept that going into the fourth and were up 18 thanks to a three ball from Owen Foxwell, and then 20 with five minutes to go when Nathan Sobey also landed from downtown.

It was then 24 when Vrenz Bleijenbergh added yet another three-point bomb before the Phoenix scored the 21-point win thanks to making 19/40 from behind the arc at 48 per cent.

The signs were especially encouraging from South East Melbourne's new import trio with John Brown III having 13 points, four rebounds and two steals in his first hit out while Hunter Maldonado added 14 points with 3/5 three-point shooting, and Vrenz Bleijenbergh 12 points, four rebounds and four assists.

Angus Glover top-scored too with 20 points with 6/10 from downtown with DJ Mitchell adding 11 points and five rebounds, Nathan Sobey 11 points, nine boards and six assists, Malique Lewis 10 points and seven rebounds, and Jordan Hunter had two monster blocks including one to deny Tim Soares a dunk.

It wasn’t an afternoon with a whole lot of positives for the Kings with Soares still top-scoring with 14 points and eight rebounds. Jaylin Galloway added 13 points and seven boards, Makuach Maluach 11 points and four assists, and Matthew Dellavedova 11 points and eight assists.

The Phoenix will complete their preparations for NBL26 by taking part in a couple of games in Perth in September 12 and 14 against Japanese opponents, Ryukyu Golden Kings and Sunrockers Shibuya.

The Kings will finalise their preparations for NBL26 as well with a clash against Serbian powerhouse KK Partizan at Qudos Bank Arena on Sunday September 21.

CODE SPORTS NBL BLITZ 2025/26

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 102 (Glover 20, Maldonado 14, Brown III 13)

SYDNEY KINGS 81 (Soares 14, Galloway 13, Maluach 11, Dellavedova 11)

BOX SCORE