Cleveland's final quarter desire sparks 36ers

Adelaide 36ers swingman Antonius Cleveland said an overwhelming desire to make plays was the catalyst to sparking the home side past Illawarra Hawks 103-95 at the Entertainment Centre on Friday night.

Cleveland, who finished with 16 points, five rebounds, five assists, three steals and two blocks, said he had to do something to lift his team.

The 36ers were 89-81 down with just over four minutes left against the Hawks when the Cleveland show came to life, Adelaide going on an amazing 17-0 run much to the approval of the record crowd of 9308 fans.

 “I just wanted to make plays. Sometimes there’s plays to be made and I just go make them,” Cleveland said.

“Whether it’s getting my hand on the steal, rebounding, pushing the break up and just always stay aggressive and always on the attack.

“With us being down I kind of knew I needed to help the team do something and I just wanted to be there for the guys.”

Cleveland has supreme faith in his teammates and knows when his side is running the floor in transition, open opportunities to score will happen.

“I find kicking it ahead to Ian (Clark), I know that shot is going in, when I find RoBo (Franks) open, I know those shots are going in.

“It’s about having confidence when those guys are shooting and DJ (Johnson) running the floor, even though he missed some layups, he got the break started.

“I think we all just feed off each other, we took a little too late to turn it on.”

The 196cm swingman has admitted he was some of the blame which saw the home side fall behind by as much as eight points in the final quarter.

“That six minute patch, I missed a few layups and a couple of free throws,” he said.

“The zone was tough but we got to the rim easy enough, so it was kind of on us.

“If I make my layups, the game wouldn’t have come down to the wire like that.”

Cleveland has already worked out how his layup issue won’t surface again.

“Dunk the ball, don’t mess around with the layups, it will be better if I just put it on there,” he said with a smile.

Adelaide now face second-placed New Zealand Breakers at the Entertainment Centre on Sunday afternoon and Cleveland knows how important victory will be.

“We just have to be ready to play Sunday,” he said.