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South East Melbourne Phoenix have revived their NBL playoff chances after snapping a five-game losing streak with a crucial 86-75 victory over Tasmania JackJumpers to climb back into calculations for a berth in the league’s Play-In Tournament.
An upset loss to ninth-placed Brisbane on Monday saw the Phoenix drop to seventh spot on the ladder but Simon Mitchell’s men produced one of their best defensive efforts of the season at Launceston’s Silverdome on Wednesday night to make a timely return to the winner’s list.
The result not only allowed the Phoenix (13-12) to reclaim sixth spot from Melbourne United but sees Tasmania (13-11) drop to fifth as the race for post-season places continues to tighten up.
South East Melbourne played like a team fighting for their playoff lives, holding the dangerous JackJumpers offence to 32 points in the first half before fending off every challenge from the home side down the stretch.
After leading his side to victory with 23 points and 11 rebounds, captain Mitch Creek was pleased to see the Phoenix secure a tough road victory after a series of heavy losses away from home.
“To fight like that here – Tassie are so good, they’re so deep, they’re so disciplined, they’re so good late in the shot clock.
“To (hold them to) 75 points … I’m so proud right now,” Creek told ESPN after playing a key role in the Phoenix victory with his fourth double-double of the season.
South East Melbourne’s path to a top-six finish is a difficult one with home clashes against fourth-placed Perth and top-two aspirants Cairns followed by a trip to Sydney to face the top-ranked Kings.
“We know we’ve got to win every game. You drop five (games) in a row, it’s going to put you in a bad spot but we’ve got a couple more games to go, two more at home with sold-out crowds,” Creek said about the upcoming schedule.
“Looking forward to getting home in front of the Phoenix faithful and getting a couple of wins there hopefully.”
Ryan Broekhoff connected twice from long distance in the opening minutes to hand South East Melbourne an ideal start and the defence took over to produce five JackJumpers turnovers to set up a 24-14 advantage.
Creek enjoyed a spirited back-and-forth with fellow former Adelaide 36er Jack McVeigh in the second period but it was the Phoenix winning the battle as they extended their lead to 46-32 at half-time thanks to a 30-19 rebounding edge that included 12 offensive boards.
Milton Doyle (16 points) and McVeigh (15) fought valiantly as Tasmania tried to mount a second-half fightback, but Creek’s energy and composed offence from Gary Browne (15) and Alan Williams helped guide the Phoenix home.
Brisbane aren’t going to make the playoffs after their indifferent season on and off the court but they restored pride in the Bullets’ name with an upset win over South East Melbourne on Monday night.
For the Bullets, veteran guard Jason Cadee scored 18 in the first half before tallying a season-best 28 with four rebounds and three assists.
“I’m really proud of the group in terms of how we responded to getting our butts kicked by Sydney five days ago,” Bullets coach Greg Vanderjagt said.
“We played well against Melbourne United for three quarters and then we come in and get a win here against what I think is a really good basketball team, who is very talented and trying to make the playoffs.
“I’m very proud of the group and in particular our role players, like H (Harry Froling) stood up huge for us and gave great minutes off the bench. Tyrell I thought was really good, Jase Cadee obviously with 28 and when we needed energy we got it from the right places.”
The Phoenix had worked their way into the top four but have gone on a five-game losing streak to slump to a 12-12 record and seventh spot behind Melbourne United (13-12) and Perth (12-10).
Ninth-placed Brisbane are out of contention for the finals but have improved to 6-17 with the 84-79 win.
“There were some really good signs tonight. It’s not all going to be the depths of despair,” Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell said.
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“We’re really disappointed with the result. Usually when you … get 11 more free throws, 10 more field goal attempts and you outrebound someone by 22 you put yourself in a pretty good position to succeed.
“Some of those dollies we missed around the paint came back to bite us. That second quarter when we were incapable of getting over screens – that’s the one that hurt us.”
The Phoenix tip off Round 16 on Wednesday away to Tasmania before finishing their campaign against three more title contenders in Perth, Cairns and Sydney.
“We get to play teams that we’re in this dogfight with and that’s great,” Mitchell said. “It’s like a double-win. We can go in, get the win and the loss for them mounts up. We’ve got to go and take care of business.”
Phoenix centre Alan Williams played strong early but ended up with just 21 minutes as he ran into foul trouble.
“It was totally inexcusable for me to go after an official like that, and it’s definitely not the image I want to get across,” Williams said.
“I definitely felt like I let my team down there early … and we were really inspired in that first quarter even after my blow-up … I’m definitely disappointed in myself.
“When you’re playing a team like Brisbane … I think a knock on them is it seems like they don’t care. They care and they showed that tonight. We didn’t have that fight for four quarters and I think it’s as simple as they outfought us.
“It was definitely a battle, but I think it was lost on our end by that lack of fight.”
The Cairns Taipans have recorded a nail-biting 85-83 win over fellow finals hopefuls New Zealand Breakers to close in on an NBL play-offs spot while stretching their winning streak to six games.
As the season reaches its pointy end, the second-placed Taipans are three wins ahead of the third-placed Breakers, who have played one less game.
Barring losses to lowly Brisbane and Adelaide, Cairns should lock up second spot and a ticket to the semi-finals, capping off a remarkable comeback from two years in the doldrums.
The Breakers have won two of their past eight games and desperately need to find some form if they’re to snatch second spot and avoid the play-in tournament implemented as part of the NBL’s new finals structure.
“(I’m) unhappy with how we played,” said Breakers coach Mody Maor. “We need to go look inside ourselves, go look at tape, investigate and find out why we’re not playing the way we need to play.
“The level of effort and the level of intensity are not what they need to be.”
The Taipans opened up a buffer on either side of quarter-time that they did not surrender for the remainder of Sunday’s game in Auckland, despite stiff resistance from New Zealand’s Will McDowell-White, who had a season-high 29 points while making seven from 10 three-point attempts.
Cairns big man Keanu Pinder missed his sixth straight game with an ankle injury but the Taipans did not want for size nor scoring options, as captain Tahjere McCall, DJ Hogg and Bul Kuol all stood up with 18 points each.
McDowell-White and Jarrell Brantley contributed 30 of the Breakers’ 40 first-half points, with their teammates chipping in only four field goals between them for the half.
Adam Forde benched imports Shannon Scott and McCall when they clocked up their fourth personal fouls in the third quarter.
McDowell-White and Brantley helped the Breakers catch up and down two points in the final five seconds, the home side had one last chance to take the lead for the first time since the first quarter.
But Abercromie’s three-point attempt bounced off the rim and the Taipans held on for a crucial victory.
“We did everything to try and lose that at the end,” said Taipans coach Adam Forde. “I’m just happy for the guys to close out another gritty win.”
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