Struggling Phoenix stun Kings

The South East Melbourne Phoenix had no right to do what they did to the Sydney Kings down three imports and on a losing slide, but they put the defending NBL champions to the sword winning 104-98.

It was a night where the positive performance from the Phoenix at Melbourne's State Basketball Centre was every bit as impressive as dismal the showing was from a Kings team who might now end the weekend outside the top six.

To say South East Melbourne were up against it would be a great understatement with them playing without import trio Alan Williams, Abdel Nader and Gary Browne as well as key pair Matt Kenyon and Craig Moller while having slipped to last place.

The Phoenix had lost eight of their last nine games by an average of 25 points but coach Mike Kelly let the shackles off on Thursday night and his team responded.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">MITCH CREEEEKKKK ? <br><br>Watch live on ESPN via Kayo ? <a href="https://t.co/V2DBM08HA9">pic.twitter.com/V2DBM08HA9</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1750450234944000019?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 25, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

South East Melbourne came out desperate to break out of their struggles and captain Mitch Creek (31 points, 10 rebounds) led the way.

He scored 14 points in the opening quarter, his team put up 36 to lead by nine and they were shooting a blistering 72 per cent from the field.

It continued in the second quarter. They went into half-time leading 61-54 with Creek having 25 points and the pressure on Sydney to respond.

It didn’t happen in the third quarter with the South East Melbourne lead growing to 18 points after an 11-0 run that included triples from Ben Ayre (23 points) and Gorjok Gak (nine points, four rebounds).

Eventually the Kings did fire back early in the fourth quarter. Consecutive threes from Denzel Valentine (13 points) had the margin back to eight and eventually four.

The Phoenix wouldn't be denied, though, and scored the most remarkable of six-point wins to get off the bottom of the table at 10-14 ahead of hosting the Perth Wildcats on Saturday.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Owen Foxwell finishing through contact, in the clutch ? <br><br>Watch live on ESPN via Kayo ? <a href="https://t.co/qyfPOXSS0I">pic.twitter.com/qyfPOXSS0I</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1750468182446317749?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 25, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It was a breakout performance from Kody Stattmann with 16 points and six rebounds while Owen Foxwell added 12 points and six assists.

Kelly gave full credit to his unheralded players afterwards.

"The players did such a phenomenal job of being single-minded in how they went about playing," he said.

"It was just great belief by the players and the group as a whole and it shows what can happen when you have that self-belief, and make some shots.

"They came up with some big plays down the stretch."

The Kings are now 11-13 and in danger of sliding out of the top six with a home game to the league-leading Melbourne United on Sunday.

Former MVP Jaylen Adams had 24 points and nine assists for Sydney with Kouat Noi adding 19 points and Jonah Bolden 10.

Coach Mahmoud Abdelfattah felt Sydney's pressure just wasn’t physical enough.

"They just weren’t feeling us," he said.

"We were supposed to pick up and pressure them full court, but they weren’t feeling us there or in the pick-and-roll coverages.

"We let them get to their spots and they were too comfortable, and we let some of their role players get going. Kudos to them but they set the tone and we didn’t."

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 17

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 104 (Creek 31, Ayre 23, Stattmann 16)

SYDNEY KINGS 98 (Adams 24, Noi 19, Valentine 13) 

BOX SCORE