Hannahs fires, Bairstow battles but Sixers just fall to Kings

The Adelaide 36ers did plenty right against a red hot Sydney Kings at Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Sunday afternoon, but a Jaylen Adams late three broke the hearts of the home team.

The Kings took out the 93-90 victory over the 36ers on the back of the go-ahead three-pointer from import point guard Adams with 3.5 seconds on the clock.

Adelaide couldn’t quite get off a good look before the buzzer to send the game into overtime and took the three-point loss on the back of the tough defeat at the hands of the Illawarra Hawks in Wollongong back on Friday night.

It's never fun to lose and the two Round 13 losses put Adelaide into a rough situation this NBL season with a 5-9 record at the exact halfway mark, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that there was a lot to like in the effort against the Kings.

Cam Bairstow and Dusty Hannahs were the standout performers in the game for the 36ers. Bairstow put together another 18 points and eight rebounds on 7/11 shooting from the field and 2/3 from three-point territory.

Hannahs was also outstanding with 24 points, three rebounds and three assists on 8/16 shooting from the floor and a perfect 7/7 at the charity stripe.

On top of the games from Hannahs and Bairstow, Daniel Johnson finished with 15 points and seven rebounds for Adelaide, and Sunday Dech 13 points and seven boards.

Todd Withers scored 11 points for the Sixers to go with three assists, two blocks and two rebounds while captain Mitch McCarron had seven points, seven rebounds, seven assists and two steals, and Kai Sotto two points.

Sixers coach CJ Bruton was happy with the effort but obviously not quite the final result.

"I thought that we played with great energy considering we had a game that got away from us and we fought back on Friday when we didn’t have our legs underneath us for the Hawks game," Buford said.

"To bounce back as always, we did it after against the JackJumpers when we let that one get away but came back home and was able to get Melbourne. 

"This one was a great start with great energy, and I thought the execution of the game plan when we stuck to it was very solid. We took the right shots and unfortunately we came up short again."

Adelaide started well back on their home floor to go up 7-2, and then triples to Todd Withers, Cam Bairstow and Sunday Dech had the home side roaring with a 16-8 edge.

Sydney talked it over and then it was Jaylen Adams that led them back into the game as he continued his hot form with three makes from downtown himself, but Adelaide still led 25-23 by quarter-time.

Five quick points to open the second period to Daniel Johnson helped extend Adelaide's lead before Cam Bairstow pushed it out to seven. Adams, though, was keeping the Kings in the game with a couple more baskets and then his fourth three-pointer of the half.

Xavier Cooks then got aggressive and even hit a buzzer-beating off balance three to go into half-time, but the 36ers still led 47-45 on the back of dominating the boards with 27 rebounds to 17. They also had nine offensive boards for 10 second chance points to just two from Sydney for zero points. 

The two teams were trading baskets for the majority of the third quarter, but it was Cooks who was doing a power of work to try and pull the Kings away, including a monstrous one-handed throwdown.

Dusty Hannahs put up eight points in the quarter for Adelaide, though, and when captain Mitch McCarron scored on the buzzer, the Sixers were up 71-69 by three quarter-time.

Adelaide was threatening to again open up a handy lead with a three-point play from Hannahs to stretch the lead to five, but Sydney responded with an open three from Shaun Bruce and then a putback from Xavier Cooks to tie scores up with under five minutes to go.

It was a good drive and finish that then put the Kings in front a minute later, but the Sixers hit back through yet another three from Dech. Bruce and Hannahs then traded triples but it was yet another one-handed dunk for Cooks that regained the one-point edge for the Kings.

Ian Clark stretched that lead to four, but Johnson and Hannahs brought scores back level for Adelaide with 50 seconds on the clock. 

Then not for the first time this season, Adams called game and hit a triple with 3.5 seconds left and the Kings then held on to win when Adelaide had a terrible final play to try and tie things up.

Adelaide will be next in action against the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Friday before also hosting the Perth Wildcats on Sunday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 13

ADELAIDE 36ERS 90 (Hannahs 24, Bairstow 18, Dech 13)

SYDNEY KINGS 93 (Adams 26, Cooks 25, Martin 10) 

BOX SCORE