Marinovic: Sixers building "championship habits" with gritty road win over JackJumpers

Adelaide 36ers acting Head Coach Marko Marinovic says winning on the road in the face of adversity is helping his side develop Championship-winning habits.

Friday night’s 94-88 result against the league leading Tasmania JackJumpers made it back-to-back wins for the Sixers to bring their season record to 4-4, and made it consecutive wins in Hobart after having lost their previous four games at MyState Bank Arena.

Bryce Cotton scored his career high against Tasmania with 35 points to go with six rebounds, five assists and a steal while there were strong contributions from Zylan Cheatham and Nick Rakocevic as the Sixers stood tall without head coach Trevor Gleeson.

The Sixers had initially fought back from 10 points down and a slow start to build a 13 point lead in the third period before being reeled in late, only to show real composure to close out the game.

With Gleeson missing due to a family commitment, Marinovic stood in as head coach for the first time in an official game, having previously guided the side to a win over Cairns in the pre-season Blitz.

The experienced Serbian mentor thanked the organisation and Gleeson for backing him in and said the way the game panned out proved an important test for the group.

“This my third season (with Adelaide), and last season, we had games like this, right,” he said. “So this is nothing new for us.”

“This is how we're going to build championship habits. We need these type of games, especially for the bench guys who’ve never been in these situations before.

“It's really good for them to win the game, and also for us, you know, to keep up, to stay in the spot to play playoffs.”

There were few highlights in a low scoring opening quarter. JackJumpers captain Will Magnay provided one with a hail Mary three pointer on the buzzer to make it an 11-point unanswered run and give his side an eight point advantage at the first break.

Cotton started to find some space in the second quarter having broken away from JackJumper Biwali Bayles who racked up three first quarter fouls.

The Sixers captain piled on 10 points for the second quarter as his side turned a double digit deficit into a one point half time lead, thanks to a late free throw by Zylan Cheatham. He also added five points, two rebounds and two assists in the second period, having to stand tall on Magnay with Nick Rakocevic heading to the bench after picking up a third personal foul.

Cotton continued on his merry way in the third, scoring another 11 points to take his tally to 27 by three-quarter time. While the Sixers opened up a 13 point advantage at one point in the quarter on the back of some strong defensive work by Matt Kenyon, a couple of three pointers to Jacob Rigoni and Cotton’s link up with Cheatham, the home side closed to within nine at the final break.

Buoyed by a boisterous crowd in Hobart, the JackJumpers closed to within two points and when Rakocevic fouled out with 4:19 to play, the Sixers had their backs against the wall.

Scores were level with 2:05 to play when former Sixer Nick Marshal hit a shot from deep but 44 seconds later the Sixers were back in front 87-82 after Cotton scored five straight points – his first of the quarter – before eventually closing it out 94-88 for an impressive win on the road.

While a lot of the attention will be on Cotton for his late heroics and customary point scoring, a proud Marinovic said it was a team effort that showed how much room the side still had to grow.

“That's what we said, like be the star in your role,” Marinovic explained.

“You know, unfortunately, we can't have 10 players scoring 20 points each game but those small things like Keanu (Rasmussen), what Keanu did, what Kenny (Matt Kenyon) did, it's huge for us.

“They're all helping us.

“John (Jenkins III) is doing his job. He's a shooter, he's a lethal shooter. We are still waiting for his game, right? He'll help us so much.

“It's insane how much room we have to improve our game.”

The Sixers will get another chance to improve when they head to John Cain Arena to take on the South East Melbourne Phoenix next Saturday night.