Smiling Wells pleased with first-up win

Despite a crowd-lifting win to tip-off the Hungry Jack’s NBL26 season, the Adelaide 36ers will learn plenty from their 87-80 win over Brisbane on Sunday evening, according to Head Coach Mike Wells.

The Sixers held a 16-point lead with a little over five minutes to play before the Bullets came late to make for some nervous fans in the sold-out Adelaide Entertainment Centre.

Bryce Cotton was the star with 39 points on club debut, the most by any player playing their first game for a new club in the 40-minute NBL era.

A smiling Wells was pleased to see his side start the season with a win for the first time in a decade.

“Anytime you get a win, there's so much work that we put in every week, so to see it pay off in the way you would like, that's the time to smile for tonight,” he said after the game.

“And then, you know, by tomorrow, all that wears off, and then it's back to work…

“We have so many new faces, I think we've got eight new players and you haven't really played, you know, Panathinaikos plays way different than anybody else in our league and you know, you just want to get a game and what I saw was just a whole bunch of positives.”

Cotton thought he’d got the biggest cheer of the evening when he ran onto the court for the first time but that was eclipsed when he knocked down back-to-back threes in the first term on the way to 15 first quarter points.

Brisbane pinched the lead briefly in the second quarter before Cotton added 15 points in the third term as Adelaide assumed control once again.

The five-time NBL MVP was pleased with his first-up outing in Sixers colours.

“I haven't really been playing with the team a lot in the preseason, so with this being the second game out, but knowing, you know, this is finally the real deal, which was super excited to be out there, because I know how many weapons we have,” Cotton explained.

“As the season goes on, you know, you would think we’re only going to continue to get better and utilising our weapons.

“But, to learn on a winning note, you know, I'll take that any day of the week.”

While Cotton got most of the plaudits, Wells also singled out the efforts of import Zylan Cheatham, who had the crowd going with a massive third-quarter dunk.

“I think Z really helps us in a lot of different ways,” Wells said of the former New Zealand Breaker.

“He plays four and five, and he bounced around out there a little bit for us, but yeah, he did an outstanding job.

“I mean, 14 rebounds, five assists, and only five shot attempts - he didn't force anything, he didn't look for it, and I thought his rebounding down the stretch, like, you know, he's two and three feet above everybody else to go get the rebound with two hands, and then him and Bryce just sort of teaming up was exceptional.”

The Sixers won’t have long to celebrate the win with a trip to Cairns on Thursday night to face the Taipans, who have two wins and a loss already this season.

But Wells will take the positives from the first-up outing and get back to work with his group.

“I love the fact that we kind of grinded through the first half, and everybody was super positive, and then we came out, and we won the third quarter to 29-20,” Wells said.

“I think good teams can do that. There was some real positives about us taking control and then getting a 15-point lead – it’s hard to get up 15.

“Yeah, okay, you know, they made up a run and they did some things down the stretch, but there were a bunch of positives there, and, you know, you want to go 15 up, you want to push it up.

“The bottom line is we got the win and now we can teach it, correct it and get ready for Thursday.”