NBL: South East Melbourne beat Brisbane Bullets 110-95
The Brisbane Bullets blew a big lead as they went down to the South East Melbourne Phoenix.
Basketball
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Brisbane showed a disturbing lack of killer instinct then a disappointing lack of fight after blowing a 16-point lead in the 110-95 loss to South East Melbourne at Nissan Arena on Saturday night.
The Bullets led by eight points at halftime and by 16 points early in the third quarter but the Phoenix blew past them like they were standing still to claim the club’s maiden win outside of Victoria in their first season in the NBL.
In scenes similar to their Round 6 loss to Sydney at “The Armoury” when Brisbane led by 15 points late in the second quarter but lost to the fast-finishing Kings by 10 points, the Bullets went from clinical to clunky to allow a visiting team to storm home to victory.
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The Phoenix went on a 25-5 run in the third term to enjoy a five-point advantage at the last change and took care of business in the fourth quarter as they ran away with the win.
The loss will hurt more than most for Brisbane who fell to a 5-7 record while the Phoenix are now 6-5. With Sydney, Melbourne United and Perth all but assured of a play-off spot, the Bullets, Phoenix and Adelaide are battling for the last place in the top four.
And the Bullets gave away significant ground last night. It was not just the loss itself but the way they lost to a fellow play-off aspirant.
The second half was largely listless and uninspiring after being so lethal and intense in the second term when they enjoyed a 30-18 quarter.
Ben Magden top-scored for the Phoenix with 23 points while captain Mitch Creek had 19 points, seven rebounds and five assists for the visitors who were also well served by John Roberson (17 points, five assists).
Jason Cadee was the leading scorer for Brisbane with 15 points while Lamar Patterson (five of 14 from the field) and Nathan Sobey (five of 12) had 14 points each. Sobey did not start after being ill most of the week.
South East Melbourne led 35-31 at quarter-time and maintained their momentum from late in the first term through to the second quarter, scoring the first five points after the break but the fast-breaking Bullets arrested the slide with a 9-0 run of their own.
Some more easy buckets on transition for the Bullets and eight Phoenix turnovers helped Brisbane to a 61-53 cushion into halftime.
Patterson led the Bullets with 12 points and seven assists while Phoenix guard Kyle Adnam had 16 points at the main break after leading the South East Melbourne fightback in the first quarter.
South East Melbourne also hit foul trouble in the second quarter as Brisbane attacked the rim with Taylor Braun and Cam Gliddon producing some nice finishes. All nine Brisbane players that hit the court in the first half filled the points column.
Bullets coach Andrej Lemanis said Brisbane stopped functioning at both ends of the floor when the Phoenix seized the momentum.
“We couldn’t get a stop and as often happens in those situations, our offence also got a little stagnant, the ball stopped moving and so it became a bit of a perpetuating cycle,’’ he said.
“At the end of the day, we’ve got to find a way to not give up two 30-point quarters. They shot the three at 57 percent on us…that’s going to make it tough to win basketball games.
“Some of them we had some breakdowns defensively so stuff that we can clean-up. The other one that hurt us tonight was offensive rebounds. They had 13 on 30 misses which is far too many.
“We just have to keep working.’’
Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell described his side’s second quarter as “ghastly” and “disgusting” but was proud of the way they turned the contest on its head.
“A lot of our issues were self-inflicted. You kick the ball around for 10 turnovers in a half of basketball with a team like Brisbane that can get up and down the floor and score on your quick, you are going to get hurt – and we did,’’ Mitchell said.
“There were things we needed to tidy up. It was a (halftime) discussion between grown men and we owned up to what we weren’t doing well and what we needed to do better.
“They are a proud group. They were stinging themselves. We were really poor and they were really good (in the first half).
“There was a bit of a ‘oh shit’ moment for us but we’ve got a mature group and we’ve been in a few holes this year. There was a bit of growth in the group.’’
SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE 110 (B Madgen 23 M Creek 19 J Roberson 17) BRISBANE BULLETS 95 (J Cadee 15 L Patterson 14 N Sobey 14) at Nissan Arena
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