Phoenix Prevail After Stunning Creek-DJ Shootout

Daniel Johnson and Mitch Creek had a power forward battle for the ages at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Friday night to open NBL Indigenous Round, but South East Melbourne Phoenix had too many weapons to beat the Adelaide 36ers 83-76.

The battle of former teammates Johnson and Creek was worth the price of admission alone. They ended up combining for 60 points on 22/31 shooting on the night, but it was the help with the game on the line that the Phoenix provided that decided it.

Johnson hit 11 of his 31 points, including 4/5 from deep, in the fourth quarter to help Adelaide take the lead with three minutes to go. Creek responded with five of his 29 points for the game, and then with scores tied at 76-76, Creek's teammates stepped up.

His captain Kyle Adnam hit a three for his only points of the game and then Brandon Ashley delivered a layup when the Sixers were trying to foul. South East Melbourne maintained second spot on the ladder with the seven-point win.

It was a brave fighting performance from the 36ers considering they spent all week without head coach CJ Bruton or assistant Jamie Pearlman on the practice floor. 

Bruton is still laid low with COVID, but Pearlman returned from NSW after attending his mother-in-law's funeral earlier on Friday to make his head coaching debut. He almost pulled off what would have been a stunning win too with Johnson on fire, but the Phoenix were too poised down the stretch.

As well as Creek's 29 points, seven rebounds and five assists, Ryan Broekhoff had 12 points for South East Melbourne, Izayah Le'afa 11 points and Brandon Ashley nine points, four rebounds and two blocks.

Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell wasn’t overly happy with his team's execution though.

"You always have to give credit to the opposition and I thought Adelaide made adjustments during the course of the game to slow us down, but I thought our decision-making especially in the point guard position was really poor in the fourth quarter," Mitchell said.

"It's something that we're trying to work on and get better at. We've seen it in a couple of games and it was just incredibly frustrating to see some of the decision-making that went on.

"For us if we want to get to that next level and I love with where we're sitting with our record, but we seem to get into these stretches of being on top and then all of a sudden our decision-making can get poor. 

"We've got to be a little bit more ruthless and circumspect in knowing where we continue to be successful, and why aren’t we continuing to go to that instead of worrying about how I can impact the game personally."

On top of Johnson's 31 points, eight rebounds and four assists for Adelaide on 10/13 shooting, captain Mitch McCarron had nine points, nine assists, six rebounds and four steals, but Cam Bairstow wasn’t seen after early in the second quarter.

Stand-in 36ers coach Jamie Pearlman was proud of his team's fight and will never forget his coaching debut.

"I definitely know where I was and what I was doing here for my first game as a head coach there's no doubt about that, the date won't escape me because of the situation. But having said that, we came in here to win a game and we just couldn’t quite get that done," Pearlman said.

"As you've seen across many games this year, we have a certain resilience and fight within us, and belief that we can be a very good team but our execution down the stretch is letting us down. It's something we've got to continue to work on at the end of the day.

"It was a terrific fightback, terrific effort from the guys and they play with a lot of heart so full credit to them."

South East Melbourne started strongly with the game's first five points with an inside bucket to Zhou Qi and three to Ryan Broekhoff, but Adelaide responded with seven of the next nine points.

Mitch Creek was the first to catch fire scoring seven quick points to put the Phoenix up 17-12 but then Daniel Johnson responded in kind with 11 points in no time, including three straight three-pointers to put the 36ers back in front.

In the end, both players scored 14 points each in the quarter but it was the Sixers who pulled in 12 rebounds to six to get an edge on the boards even though the Phoenix led 26-25 at quarter-time.

Adelaide then started the second quarter on fire with the first six points beginning with a beautiful bounce pass down low from Dusty Hannahs for Mitch McCarron to finish. A steal and breakaway dunk from McCarron then had the Sixers on top 31-26.

South East Melbourne called the timeout and it worked as they came out and scored the next 11 points starting with a Brandon Ashley three-point play. Creek capped the run with two more points for the six-point lead before Johnson steadied the 36ers with his own and-one.

The Phoenix, though, were building momentum and with 13 of their own rebounds to six in the quarter including five offensive, they went on an 11-2 run including three balls from Izayah Le'afa and Broekhoff.

That had the visitors leading by 11 but that was back to eight at half-time with a three-point play from Hannahs on the buzzer after a crafty inbounds play.

Five more points to Creek to start the second half restored the double-figure lead for South East Melbourne before Zhou Qi enjoyed his best extended patch for some time. 

He got the better of Kai Sotto at both ends and threw down a dunk in transition as part of five points to help the Phoenix to a 65-54 advantage.

Adelaide weren't willing to lie down and opened up the fourth period with a McCarron three ball. Johnson then got hot again with another eight points and suddenly with 4:45 left it was just a two-point ball game.

A minute later and Johnson knocked down a corner three to make it a one-point game and then with three minutes on the clock a Hannahs floater put the home team in front.

Then with a minute and-a-half left, Johnson and Creek had both scored again to tie scores up before Phoenix captain Kyle Adnam scored his first points of the night to put his side up 79-76.

South East Melbourne got a stop and with 12 seconds left, Ashley stretched the lead to five and they held on for the seven-point win.

Both teams back up quickly to play on Sunday with the 36ers remaining at home to host the Perth Wildcats. The Phoenix take on the Illawarra Hawks in a mouth-watering match up on Sunday at John Cain Arena.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 14

ADELAIDE 36ERS 76 (Johnson 31, McCarron 9, Hannahs 9)

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 83 (Creek 29, Broekhoff 12, Le'afa 11) 

BOX SCORE