Phoenix Fire Back with Statement Throwdown Win

Sunday, November 20, 2022

The South East Melbourne Phoenix hit back emphatically to deliver an impressive 84-69 Throwdown victory on Saturday at a sold out John Cain Arena against crosstown rivals Melbourne United.

Just 13 days ago United took advantage of a shorthanded Phoenix to win by 25 points before both teams resumed after the break on Thursday night with losses to the Adelaide 36ers and Perth Wildcats respectively.

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It was South East Melbourne who had the travel back from Perth thrown into the mix as well and while neither team got rolling in the first quarter without a three-point make, the Phoenix worked their way on top in the second term.

They had built a seven-point lead by half-time and that grew to 23 by three quarter-time sparked by a pair of triples from Ryan Broekhoff.

Melbourne sent a brief scare led by Rayjon Tucker in the fourth, but could never get back within single-dights with South East Melbourne winning by 15 in front of 10,175 fans.

The Phoenix ended up shooting 10/25 at 40 per cent from deep while getting to the foul line 28 times opposed to the 6/21 three-point shooting at 28 per cent from Melbourne who only attempted 18 foul shots.

Mitch Creek put up another 23 points and nine rebounds for South East Melbourne while Gary Browne ran the team expertly for 16 points and 11 assists.

Alan Williams was a powerful presence with 18 points and 15 rebounds with Broekhoff adding nine points on those three second half three balls.

Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell was delighted in the response from the Throwdown loss two weeks ago, and Thursday's loss in Perth.

"Obviously it was a rough first leg of this weekend for us and I think there was a bit of a dint in the pride but we had some different personnel this time than last time against Melbourne United, and I thought our match ups were a little bit better," Mitchell said.

"But I thought there was a bit of a sting in the tail tonight from some of our defensive lapses from the game against Perth. There was a bit of a point to prove and it was good to see the boys respond."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Ryan Broekhoff is cooking ?‍?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/FlP0pR8iSJ">pic.twitter.com/FlP0pR8iSJ</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1593874528114835456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Rayjon Tucker again had a strong finish to the game as he did Thursday against Adelaide to end up with 22 points.

Chris Goulding added 15 points and five rebounds, and Xavier Rathan-Mayes 13 points, eight boards and seven assists with the backcourt trio combining for 50 of the team's 69 points in the game.

United coach Dean Vickerman clearly had plenty playing on his mind after the loss.

"I thought the last few minutes before half-time you could see it and I thought we got lucky to kind of hang around with some of the shots they missed," Vickerman said.

"I thought they were well on top of us going into the half there and we asked for a response, and I just didn’t think we got it.

"Credit to the Phoenix, they disrupted tonight and part of our biggest offensive problems were just getting started with people in spots, and our point guard being able to organise. They did a good job of taking it out of our point guard's hands or whoever was carrying it was disrupted.

"There was so many possessions we felt we started out of position and then when the pressure came, people felt they had to attack and shortcut our offence. We really just had no flow or rhythm to what we did."

Both Victorian teams were out to bounce back from Thursday night losses and it was United who started the better racing out to an 8-1 lead in the opening three minutes.

South East Melbourne eventually got their first field goal coming out of a timeout through Gary Browne followed up with an and-one from Mitch Creek.

Another 5-0 run soon had the Phoenix take their first lead in the contest and Browne finished the quarter with nine points to help them to a narrow 17-16 edge with neither team hitting from downtown in eight attempts.

Browne then hit the first three of the game to open the second quarter with Rayjon Tucker soon returning serve for Melbourne. But Browne and Trey Kell then hit consecutive triples to give South East Melbourne the 27-23 lead.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Rayjon Tucker is SPRINGY ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/HW8J45LkuV">pic.twitter.com/HW8J45LkuV</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1593864122562596864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Chris Goulding responded with a three of his own and consecutive buckets to Xavier Rathan-Maynes brought scores back level.

The twists continued going into half-time with the Phoenix hitting the last seven points including two finishes at the rim from Creek, and a triple from Reuben Te Rangi to give them a 39-32 advantage.

It was then all SEM during the third quarter and they blew the game further wide open beginning with a pair of three-pointers after he had been scoreless in his first six quarters in Round 7.

That sparked a 13-0 that finished with another triple from Creek to see the lead grow to 20 and Dean Vickerman needed to talk things over.

The Phoenix were up by 23 by three quarter-time but things weren’t quite secure just yet.

Melbourne came out to hit the first eight points of the fourth quarter including a three from Goulding and and-one conversion from Tucker.

The Phoenix did again respond with seven of the next nine points to again lead by 20, but once more United hit the next seven to get within 13 and send a brief scare into their crosstown rivals.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Gary Browne is hot early ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NB2L3?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NB2L3</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/mBHZ80RBX6">pic.twitter.com/mBHZ80RBX6</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1593858976923328512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Eventually Broekhoff's third bomb from deep for the second half with a minute and-a-half to go sealed the eventual 15-point Throwdown win for the Phoenix.

Melbourne is next in action on Saturday night hosting the Tasmania JackJumpers while the Phoenix will be at home to the Illawarra Hawks next Sunday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 7

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 84 (Creek 23, Williams 18, Browne 16)

MELBOURNE UNITED 69 (Tucker 22, Goulding 15, Rathan-Mayes 13)

BOX SCORE