Wells: Hawks win not clean but Sixers showed plenty of grit

It wasn’t clean but Adelaide 36ers Head Coach Mike Wells was pleased with the grit his side showed in its win over Illawarra on Sunday.

Wells’ side returned to the winners’ list with a scrappy 84-78 win over an undermanned Hawks outfit - an eighth straight victory against the reigning NBL champions.

Bryce Cotton and Isaac Humphries each finished with 16 points and in his return from suspension Nick Rakocevic was dominant on the boards and finished with his first NBL double double (11 points and 11 rebounds).

The Hawks suffered a couple of big blows before tip-off with star import JaVale McGee ruled out through illness and then Tyler Harvey withdrawn just before game time due to bask spasms.

Wells admitted it made the opposition scout difficult, and he paid tribute to Hawks coach Justin Tatum for the way his side played.

“He does a hell of a job, and, you know, those guys were ready to play no matter who was on the court,” Wells said of the Hawks coach.

“And, yeah, you know, it was an interesting game.

“You'd like it to maybe be a little bit cleaner, but as I've said in previous press conferences, what this group is doing is learning how to win in real time and what we displayed again today was grit.

“And for us to achieve the ultimate goals that we want, and to get to the highest point as a team at the end of the year, you've got to win all these games like this, and you have to be in a bunch of close games…

“I wouldn't say that I was overly happy with the whole first half. You know, we committed four fouls for the quarter or for the half.

“But, we were trying to get going. We were trying to do the right things. We were trying to figure out the game. We just couldn't quite get set.”

As Wells explained, the personnel absences didn’t seem to impact the Hawks as the home side started strongly and full of energy to the delight of the Wollongong crowd.

In his 151^st NBL game, Isaac Humphries proved a clear path to the ring early, scoring the first 10 points for the Sixers and helping his side stay level at the first change.

After withstanding the Hawks’ early energy, the Sixers threatened to break the game open with a ten-point run on the back of some three-point shooting by Isaac White, Bryce Cotton and Flynn Cameron.

But the Hawks fought back with a nine-point run of their own to keep the margin to just two points in the visitors’ favour at the main break.

As they did in the third quarter against Sydney three days earlier, the Sixers struggled for any real fluency with the Hawks doing well to lock down on Cotton and stem the scoring.

They halved the deficit to make it just a one-point game heading into the final period.

And while they continued to fight, the Sixers were able to close it out with a late DJ Vasiljevic three-pointer proving to be the difference.

The win in Wollongong sees the Sixers improve their season record to 15-4 and keeps them on top of the Hungry Jack’s NBL ladder ahead of a run of home games over the festive period.

Wells said that was a credit to his players and how coachable they were.

“To be seven and two on the road, 15 and four (overall), you know, it's a credit to them and the work, and their commitment to each other,” he explained.

“We'll take a little breath here,” he added. “We're gonna go home, we're gonna try to recuperate and see if we can make the Adelaide Entertainment Centre really happy on Christmas Eve.”

The Sixers will next return home to host Cairns on Wednesday night.