DJ leads brave 36ers performance under Pearlman

Daniel Johnson did his level best to give Jamie Pearlman a winning start to his head coaching career after a tough week, but ultimately the South East Melbourne Phoenix scored the last seven points to beat the Adelaide 36ers 83-76.

The 36ers were back at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Friday night to open Indigenous Round in the NBL and it was a brave fighting performance from the 36ers considering they spent all week without head coach CJ Bruton or assistant Jamie Pearlman on the practice floor. 

Bruton is still laid low with COVID, but Pearlman returned from NSW after attending his mother-in-law's funeral on Friday to make his head coaching debut. He almost pulled off what would have been a stunning win too with Johnson on fire, but the Phoenix were too poised down the stretch.

Despite the eventual seven-point loss with South East Melbourne hitting the game's final seven points after scores were tied at 76-76, it was a performance full of heart in the circumstances from the Sixers and Pearlman.

Daniel Johnson produced a standout performance in a fascinating power forward battle with former Sixers captain Mitch Creek. DJ finished with 31 points, eight rebounds and four assists on shooting 10/13 from the field, 4/5 from downtown and 7/10 at the foul line.

Captain Mitch McCarron finished with nine points, nine assists, six rebounds and four steals, Dusty Hannahs nine points, Sunday Dech seven points and Cam Bairstow six but he wasn’t seen after early in the second quarter.

Todd Withers had five points, Kai Sotto four points, nine rebounds and three blocks, Mojave King three points and Hyrum Harris two points.

Stand-in 36ers coach Jamie Pearlman was proud of his team's fight and will never forget his coaching debut.

"I definitely know where I was and what I was doing here for my first game as a head coach there's no doubt about that, the date won't escape me because of the situation. But having said that, we came in here to win a game and we just couldn’t quite get that done," Pearlman said.

"As you've seen across many games this year, we have a certain resilience and fight within us, and belief that we can be a very good team but our execution down the stretch is letting us down. It's something we've got to continue to work on at the end of the day.

"It was a terrific fightback, terrific effort from the guys and they play with a lot of heart so full credit to them."

South East Melbourne started strongly with the game's first five points with an inside bucket to Zhou Qi and three to Ryan Broekhoff, but Adelaide responded with seven of the next nine points.

Mitch Creek was the first to catch fire scoring seven quick points to put the Phoenix up 17-12 but then Daniel Johnson responded in kind with 11 points in no time, including three straight three-pointers to put the 36ers back in front.

In the end, both players scored 14 points each in the quarter but it was the Sixers who pulled in 12 rebounds to six to get an edge on the boards even though the Phoenix led 26-25 at quarter-time.

Adelaide then started the second quarter on fire with the first six points beginning with a beautiful bounce pass down low from Dusty Hannahs for Mitch McCarron to finish. A steal and breakaway dunk from McCarron then had the Sixers on top 31-26.

South East Melbourne called the timeout and it worked as they came out and scored the next 11 points starting with a Brandon Ashley three-point play. Creek capped the run with two more points for the six-point lead before Johnson steadied the 36ers with his own and-one.

The Phoenix, though, were building momentum and with 13 of their own rebounds to six in the quarter including five offensive, they went on an 11-2 run including three balls from Izayah Le'afa and Broekhoff.

That had the visitors leading by 11 but that was back to eight at half-time with a three-point play from Hannahs on the buzzer after a crafty inbounds play.

Five more points to Creek to start the second half restored the double-figure lead for South East Melbourne before Zhou Qi enjoyed his best extended patch for some time. 

He got the better of Kai Sotto at both ends and threw down a dunk in transition as part of five points to help the Phoenix to a 65-54 advantage.

Adelaide weren't willing to lie down and opened up the fourth period with a McCarron three ball. Johnson then got hot again with another eight points and suddenly with 4:45 left it was just a two-point ball game.

A minute later and Johnson knocked down a corner three to make it a one-point game and then with three minutes on the clock a Hannahs floater put the home team in front.

Then with a minute and-a-half left, Johnson and Creek had both scored again to tie scores up before Phoenix captain Kyle Adnam scored his first points of the night to put his side up 79-76.

South East Melbourne got a stop and with 12 seconds left, Ashley stretched the lead to five and they held on for the seven-point win.

Both teams back up quickly to play on Sunday with the 36ers remaining at home to host the Perth Wildcats.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 14

ADELAIDE 36ERS 76 (Johnson 31, McCarron 9, Hannahs 9)

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 83 (Creek 29, Broekhoff 12, Le'afa 11) 

BOX SCORE