Wells: ‘I can’t say enough about Jason Cadee’

Adelaide 36ers head coach Mike Wells has lauded the impact of Jason Cadee in Sunday’s 105-99 defeat to South East Melbourne Phoenix at John Cain Arena.

Trailing by 18 points at the main interval, Wells made some changes to the rotation which saw extra minutes for Cadee and the 186cm point guard led a huge fightback.

The 36ers were down 66-43 during the third quarter before the Cadee-led fightback, Adelaide outscoring the hosts 34-18 in the third quarter to only trail by two points at three quarter time.

Cadee scored 15 points to go with seven rebounds and three assists with a massive plus-minus of +26 in his 23 minutes.

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“I can’t say enough about Jason Cadee,” Wells said.

“What he was able to help us orchestrate (the comeback).

“His leadership out there and trying to get guys in the right space, that helped us, whether that was at the offensive end and the defensive end.

“That helped us function.”

Wells said there were several positives to take out of the six-point defeat and will move forward to Friday night’s final regular season match in Perth against the Wildcats.

“Obviously not pleased to be put in that position, down that many points, but extremely proud of the group,” Wells said.

“Our competitiveness, trying to figure some things out on the fly of the game and to figure it out and catch lightning there a little bit.

“All of a sudden we were playing much better and we were defending at a higher level.”

Wells said after the huge fightback, where Adelaide erased the Phoenix advantage and held an 88-83 lead in the final stanza, was pleasing to see but needed his side to execute down the stretch.

“We turned it into a possession game and in a possession game that’s where the small details come into play,” Wells said.

“They made a couple of plays; I thought we made a couple more plays.

“But, it was a tough ending for our group, but there are we some teaching moments there to get us ready for our next game and hopefully post season games potentially on the horizon.”

Adelaide will travel to RAC Arena for Friday night’s clash against Perth Wildcats from 9pm ACDT.