Adelaide 36ers face Illawarra after six-point win over Brisbane at AEC
The Adelaide 36ers won’t have time to celebrate their first-up win at the Entertainment Centre when they hit the road to play Illawarra on Monday night.
36ers
Don't miss out on the headlines from 36ers. Followed categories will be added to My News.
HAVING avoided a 0-2 start for the first time in Joey Wright’s coaching career at Adelaide, the 36ers must now back up from Saturday’s win over Brisbane to play Illawarra on the road on Monday night.
The 36ers’ 104-98 win over the Bullets opened the Entertainment Centre in style and responded to their ordinary first-up performance against the Sydney Kings a week earlier.
But the challenges keep rolling with the Hawks in Wollongong to close Round 3.
Speaking after their six-point win over Brisbane on Saturday, Wright said it was a great start to life at the AEC.
Live stream the 2019/20 NBL Season with ESPN on KAYO with your TV, Mobile, Tablet or Laptop. Get your 14 day free trial & start streaming instantly >
“It was great to give all those fans a reward for coming out and being loud, noisy and engaged in what we were doing so I thought it was a great win for the club.
“If they did (feel any pressure on opening night) then they didn’t show it, our shortcomings were probably from playing our second game of NBL basketball together but I was pleased with the energy early and when it picked back up in the fourth quarter.
“But we’ve got to learn to play with that type of energy and push each other to play at that level in order for us to be successful.”
Adelaide trailed by two points at quarter-time then put the foot down on the back of some smart defence from Eric Griffin — who also finished with 22 points — energy from Jack McVeigh and controlled aggression from Daniel Johnson.
Brisbane drew level in the fourth quarter with three pointers from Jason Cadee and EJ Singer but Adelaide responded when it mattered.
“Jack came in and brought a lot of energy, and that’s going to be our advantage, we had some guys who sat tonight that maybe come in and spark us and tonight that was Jack who knocked down some big shots, he got some back door cuts and finished strong around the rim.
“I thought he did an excellent job of sparking us.”
After fouling out in nine minutes against Sydney last week, Griffin responded with disciplined defence in the type of performance the Sixers have been looking for.
“If he’s out there on the court, good things are going to happen, so we just need him on the court and if he can learn to understand that sometimes he might have to forgo a block or scramble for the ball just to stay on the court, then we do need him out there and I thought he was fantastic tonight.”
The final crowd of 7515 was 600 short of the all-time NBL record in Adelaide which was set during the 2013-14 grand final series and co-captain Brendan Teys said it created an awesome atmosphere.
“It’s awesome to play in a new venue, it puts us right up there with some of the best venues in the league, the fans came out and we could feel the energy.
“I’m super pleased with the result, we had a big week at training so to translate that into the game tonight was what we needed to do and we got the job done.”
reece.homfray@news.com.au