Wells: Not the full 40, but 35 enough for Sixers in tough Tassie road win

Adelaide 36ers Head Coach Mike Wells has spoken of how much he enjoys coaching his playing group as his side moved into outright second on the Hungry Jack’s NBL ladder with an 11-point win over Tasmania in Hobart on Thursday night.

Zylan Cheatham put in a man of the match performance with a season-high 26 points to go with 13 rebounds and four assists as the Sixers won 97-86.

The win leaves Adelaide 5-1 on the road this season and improves the Sixers’ record to 8-3 after a third of the regular season.

While the JackJumpers were missing key players including captain Will Magnay and Antony Drmic, they came into the game on a four-game losing run, making Wells and the Sixers hyper aware of their desperate need for a win.

And so it made for a pleased coach post-game.

“We haven't won, the Sixers haven't won here in like the last five games, right? 0 and five, so we understand how difficult it is to win a road game, let alone a road game here in Tassie,” Wells said after the game.

“(I’ve got) tonnes of respect for what (Tasmania coach) Scott (Roth) does and their organisation.

“I thought we played really, really well for like 35 minutes, you know, and probably not the last five or a little bit longer, and you give them credit for coming out in the fourth quarter and really bringing the heat and pressing us the whole time.

“But we did a lot of really good things. I'm going to focus on the good things.”

Wells pulled an early surprise, changing his starting five for the first time this season, with former JackJumper Matt Kenyon replacing co-captain DJ Vasiljevic in the starting line-up.

And while he was primarily there for his defensive cover, Kenyon was prominent early on the scoresheet with the opening two points of the game and then a three pointer to have five points in just over five minutes on court in the first period.

“I thought Matt would be an interesting match-up on Bryce (Hamilton). He's such a talented player (and Matt) held him to 12 points - an elite job defending a really, really good scorer," Wells explained of his line-up change.

“He gave us a different dynamic that I wanted to take a look at for this team.

“We had six guys in double figures, 29 points off the bench, and then DJ handled everything just with a little switch, and he scored 11 in-a-row for us there in that one stretch. And I think that's the kind of punch that when he does come off the bench like that, that we can find different ways to kind of get him a shot and create different things.”

After playing all but 80 seconds of game time on Sunday, star Bryce Cotton enjoyed some bench minutes as Flynn Cameron and Cheatham picked up the scoring early. Cheatham also chipped in with five first-quarter rebounds as the Sixers rushed to a 26-15 lead at the first break.

The 11-point lead extended to 14 at half time as Cheatham continued hitting the scoreboard.

He had 16 points at 63 per-cent from the field including three from beyond the arc to go with seven rebounds, and with the JackJumpers hitting foul trouble early, the Sixers made the most of several trips to the line.

The Sixers continued to hold the home side at bay, allowing Wells the luxury of benching both Cheatham and Bryce Cotton at the same time.

And that just brought Vasiljevic into the game. He raced to 14 points including 11 straight in the quarter with Nick Rakocevic slowly pushing into double figures himself as the lead stretched to a game-high 28 points.

As it did in Sunday’s loss to Perth, the scoring dried up for the Sixers in the final period, hitting just two points in the first five-and-a-half minutes.

It allowed the Tasmanians to close to within nine points with 2:36 to play but with Josh Bannan and Ben Ayre both fouling out late, it was a hurdle too high to overcome.

While admitting his side didn’t play well for the full 40 minutes, Wells was pleased to come away from Hobart with a win and plenty of positive takeaways.

“We've won, and we built a 28-point lead pretty much through three quarters, and Bryce Cotton’s two from 11 and had an off night, guys,” he said.

“It's really, really hard to do those things so as a coach, there's a lot of different guys that went into that, you know, Isaac Humphrey is 10 (points), six (rebounds) and four blocks. He was outstanding, DJ's run, what Matt (Kenyon) did on the defensive end, and Matt made some threes and opened things…

“Z (Cheatham) is the Swiss Army knife kind of guy for us. I've used that reference a couple times. He quarterbacks us at times. Man, he can do so many different things, and he's all in on competing and defending and rebounding.

“I just have really enjoyed coaching the group and trying to figure this stuff out, and I'd love it to be clean for four quarters and 40 minutes but it's usually not, but we got the win, we'll move on.”

The Sixers now return home to host Cairns at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Sunday with limited tickets still available.