Bruton thrilled with 'resilience' in Snakes win

Adelaide 36ers head coach CJ Bruton has lauded his side’s resilience in Monday night’s come from behind 99-96 win against Cairns Taipans in Far North Queensland.

Bruton called a time out with the 36ers trailing 77-67 late in the third quarter and with the season hanging by a thread, Adelaide swooped home for a three-point success.

“The resilience to keep fighting, from where we have been at, to know we have a very slim chance,” Bruton said post match.

“The mood within the group, from what we did in pre-season until now, has been up and down.

“It’s understanding where we are at as individuals and as a team and what we can do and we can control and how we keep moving forward.

“The group showed when we flew up here at hit the practice court, the energy was good, whereas earlier in the week you would’ve thought there was a funeral somewhere.”

Bruton said there was a sense of relief among the playing group after Adelaide snapped a five-game losing streak.

“Feels good, any time you get a win it feels good,” Bruton said.

“Just where we have been at, the fight that we’ve had to go through and the losing streak, it’s definitely tough.

“I like the way our boys stuck with it and fought, you get up, you get down.

“The first quarter was really solid for us, I was really happy with the effort.”

Bruton said his whole squad contributed in the success against the second-placed Taipans, with Kyrin Galloway the stand out with a big final quarter defensively.

The power forward played the final eight minutes of the match after not hitting the floor for the first 32 minutes of the contest.

“Everyone on my roster played tonight, normally it’s just eight or nine guys,” Bruton said.

“Galloway got in there a set the tone, blocked a few shots.”

Antonius Cleveland scored 11 of his game-high 27 points in the final 10 minutes and Bruton was full of praise for hIs 198cm swingman.

“We needed every bucket, and he (Cleveland) was pretty locked in,” Bruton said.

“AC, if you go under and he’s locked in, he’s shooting it, or he can get to the rim and make some great decisions as well.

“And RoBo (Franks) found the range today, he shot NBA threes, he can do that.”

Adelaide still has a slim chance of making the NBL23 play-in tournament, the 36ers need to win the final two games of the regular season, starting at home against the reigning champions Sydney Kings on Friday night.