What a few days for the Adelaide 36ers. Backing up Thursday’s win in Perth, the Sixers snapped the 13-game winning streak of the Sydney Kings with a terrific 90-82 victory at Qudos Bank Arena on Sunday.
The 36ers ended a nine-game winning streak of Melbourne United earlier in the season and then on the back of winning in Perth over the Wildcats on Friday night, they continued to build some momentum to close out the NBL22 season on Sunday.
The Kings had locked away a playoff spot on the back of winning their previous 13 matches, but they still needed to keep winning for a top-two finish to be secured, but the 36ers were having none of it.
Little separated the two teams for much of the afternoon and even without the presence of Jarell Martin, the Kings did have their moments where they looked to be heading for that 14th consecutive win.
Sydney did lead with just over five minutes to go 70-69 with another score from Xavier Cooks, but it was all the Sixers from there. A three ball from Mitch McCarron put them back on top and then in the space of two minutes Sunday Dech, Daniel Johnson and Dusty Hannahs all hit from downtown.
Dech then hit another and those five threes in the space of four minutes late in the game was enough to give Adelaide consecutive road wins and to snap the streak of the Kings in their first home game in six weeks.
Dusty Hannahs backed up his 23 points on Thursday in Perth with another 22 for Adelaide to go with three assists.
Daniel Johnson put up 16 points and 11 rebounds, Sunday Dech 11 points and three boards, and Zac Gattorna 10 points in 10 minutes after having just two career points coming into the game.
Sixers coach CJ Bruton was delighted in his team to back up with the win in Perth with this win in Sydney.
“We set out for this goal and I think to be able to achieve it is definitely good. The effort and energy, the focus and after I said after the Perth game, was really good,” Bruton said.
“I think it carried over and we started like how we finished in Perth and I don’t know if it was tired legs or whatever, but the shots that we took were still good. I thought our boys were up for the challenge all the way through and I had to go deep into the bench and use everyone, and everyone contributed. In the end, we got great results this weekend.”
(Source: Adelaide 36ers)
