Ninnis says Sixers showed fight in defeat

Disappointed Adelaide 36ers head coach Scott Ninnis could not fault his side’s fight in Friday night’s 102-84 loss to Brisbane Bullets at Nissan Arena.

Ninnis said Adelaide tried multiple defensive looks but the 36ers couldn’t contain Nathan Sobey, who scored a career-high 37 points.

“You can always do better, but he (Sobey) had an incredible game,” Ninnis said post-match.

“But when we took the ball out of Sobey’s hand, they had other guys step up and make shots.

“Take nothing away from the Bullets, they were really good tonight.

“We showed some fight, but it didn’t turn out to be our night.”

Adelaide shot just four-from-28 from the three-point line at 14 per cent, compared to the Bullets hitting the triple at 55 per cent, which went a long way into the outcome of the contest.

“We couldn’t kick the ball in the ocean, and we know we are a better shooting team than that,” Ninnis said.

“And we had some really good looks too.

“It just seemed every time we got back into the game, they had all the answers.”

Adelaide guard DJ Vasiljevic, who scored a team-high 28 points, said despite Sobey’s big game, he thought there was more than one area of the game which caused the result.

“Sobey played one hell of a game, but we gave up too many offensive rebounds,” Vasiljevic said.

“And I think we missed too many easy shots in the first half.”

Adelaide was always playing catch up after the Bullets went on a 10-0 after Kyrin Galloway tied the contest at 36-36 during the second quarter.

The 36ers reduced the Bullets’ lead to 58-54 midway through the third quarter, but gave up a 9-0 run across the three-quarter time break which turned out to be a bridge too far.

Adelaide will be back in action next Sunday afternoon when the 36ers host New Zealand Breakers at the Entertainment Centre from 3.30pm ACDT.