Huge second half sees 36ers deliver stunning comeback

It was a first half to forget but the reality was it was largely on the back of two New Zealand Breakers stars catching fire, but the Adelaide 36ers turned the tide impressively to dominate the second half and score the 98-85 win on Sunday.

The 36ers returned to the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Sunday afternoon on the back of their first win of the 2021/22 NBL season in Tasmania on Thursday, but things didn’t quite start how they hoped against the Breakers.

New Zealand pair Will McDowell-White and Hugo Besson were just unstoppable in the first half combining for 41 points while hitting 11 threes between them to help their side to a 19-point lead, and the 59-42 half-time edge.

However, the Sixers were able to turn the tide in the second half and put the clamps on the Breakers. The 36ers held New Zealand to just 26 points the entire second half while scoring 56 themselves to turn that 19-point deficit into a 13-point win.

It ended up being a remarkable demolition on the boards from the 36ers pulling in 47 rebounds to 29 from New Zealand, including 16 offensive rebounds to three which led to 18 second chance points to four.

The turnover count was also vastly improved with the 36ers turning it over just six times after doing it 53 times combined over the opening three games of #NBL22.

Dusty Hannahs found form in Thursday's win in Tasmania and kept that rolling to his new home floor on Sunday finishing with 25 points and four assists on shooting 9/15 from the field and 4/6 from three-point territory.

His backcourt partner and captain Mitch McCarron was tremendous running the ship for Adelaide too with four points, 13 rebounds and five assists.

Daniel Johnson put up another 22 points with Todd Withers contributing 16 points and four rebounds, Cam Bairstow 15 points, 10 boards, four steals and three assists, and Isaac Humphries seven points.

Hyrum Harris scored four points to go with two rebounds with Tad Dufelmeier finishing with three points and three assists, and Manny Malou two points, four rebounds and a steal.

Adelaide coach CJ Bruton was glad to see his team dig deep at half-time, regroup and then come out executing much better at both ends of the floor.

"I mean Will McDowell-White and Besson, they can play so I take my hat off to them even though I'm not wearing them," Bruton said.

"They're exciting players, they made plays and made timely shots to keep us at bay. They made us dig deep in ourselves and just have a look at ourselves. 

"Clearly when you get stops you are able to run and create havoc at the end of the floor. We used the ball and move it around very well, and I thought that the guys that had the ball in their hands were able to make better decisions. 

"Clearly our turnover count was low and that contributes to it, but I thought we took advantage of what was in front of us as well."

There was some early buckets for Adelaide to Isaac Humphries, Todd Withers and then a three to Dusty Hannahs before New Zealand took over the contest to score 10 straight points. The Breakers would lead 28-15 on the back of 13 opening quarter points from Will McDowell-White.

Despite falling down 18 to open the second period, another Hannahs three soon had Adelaide back within eight but they would get no closer in the opening half with the Breakers thriving on the back of hot shooting from McDowell-White and Hugo Besson.

The pair combined for 41 points in the first half between them while shooting a remarkable 11/13 from the field. The Sixers were shooting at 38 per cent as a team in contrast with New Zealand up 59-42 at the break.

The 36ers had to turn the momentum to start the second half and that started with Isaac Humphries draining a three ball. Soon after, the Sixers went on a 10-0 run with Todd Withers, Daniel Johnson, Mitch McCarron and Cam Bairstow all contributing.

Not long after and Hannahs hit a three ball and then the 36ers closed the third term with the last six points to only trail by two after being down 17 at the start of the quarter.

Even through the Breakers were back up four with 6:30 to go in the fourth quarter, but from that momentum the 36ers took over and delivered a match-winning final six minute of basketball.

Johnson hit a three ball to briefly put Adelaide back on top before Bairstow also hit a triple to stretch the lead to two, and another make from deep from Johnson had the lead out to five with three minutes on the clock.

Hannahs then stepped up to close the deal with a three-point and an and-one play before Withers delivered a big throwdown to cap an 8-0 run for the 36ers to go on to win the game by 13 having early been down 19.

The 36ers now return to the road but have just the one game in Round 3 and that's in Cairns against the Taipans on Saturday night.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 2

ADELAIDE 36ERS 98 (Hannahs 25, Johnson 22, Withers 16)

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 85 (McDowell-White 27, Besson 25, Wetzell 20) 

BOX SCORE 

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