Sixers get “gritty” win over Taipans but still short of their best

Adelaide 36ers Head Coach Mike Wells has warned his side is “not even close” to showing what it is capable of, despite moving to 9-3 for the Hungry Jack’s NBL26 season.

The Sixers were forced to overtime by the Cairns Taipans on Sunday evening in Adelaide as stars Bryce Cotton (41 points, eight assists, four steals) and Jack McVeigh (39 points, eight rebounds, seven assists) went toe to toe in a nailbiting shootout.

Cotton had some chances as the clock wound down but was unable to find the winning points with play going into extra time for the first time in an NBL game this season.

While the game had the Adelaide Entertainment Centre crowd on the edge of its seats, the result kept the home team at the pointy end of the ladder and pleased coach Wells.

“There's a whole bunch of stuff that this group's capable of,” Wells said after the 105-101 result.

“I'm just really excited at where we are at 9-3.

“We're winning games and we're in a really good spot and where we want to be, and yet, I really think that we're not even close to being who we're going to be at the end (of the season).”

Having only landed in Adelaide 48 hours earlier, new recruit Troy Brown Jnr wasn’t expected to play a big role in the game, but he was thrust into the action just four minutes in and he hit his first points almost immediately.

He had five for the quarter but the Sixers trailed by a point at the first break after a late dunk to Marcus Lee put the Taipans in front.

Adelaide kept threatening to break away in the second period but former Sixer Jack McVeigh kept his side in it.

Other than a short period on the bench after suffering a poke to the eye, McVeigh was his side’s go-to-guy, passing his NBL career-high of 28 points on the back of some strong work under the rim.

Not to be outdone, Cotton started rolling, pestering the Taipans into several errors and then punishing them on the scoreboard. He had 28 points himself as the sides broke for the final time.

With Cotton unable to find the winning score in regulation time, the game went to overtime and the Taipans seemed to have the momentum early before finding foul trouble with Andrew Andrews joining fellow import Admiral Schofield in fouling out.

In the end Cairns was brave but the Sixers didn’t panic down the stretch with Brown playing important minutes late.

“I just think that was a really gritty win,” Wells said.

“I thought our group really hung together. You know, (there was) kind of some miscommunication, some breakdowns, but what I really loved, we had great energy throughout the game.

“We've been playing a lot (but) there was no like us being tired, none of that.

“We didn't see a lot of breakdowns and there was a toughness and a physicality and instead of them being able to run their offence, I thought that we affected it and we grinded on some things so they were taking more of the shots that we wanted instead of the shots that they wanted.”

While there were undoubtedly some nerves late, Wells was pleased with the composure of his line-up.

“I still thought we were competing, we were trying,” he said.

“Guys were saying the right things, our communication was at a really, really high level.

“There was never a sense of panic… the guys were there, and I thought we had a lot of great efforts from a lot of different people.”

The Sixers are again at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Wednesday night, hosting Illawarra in the first Ignite Cup game for the club.