Wells shows praise to young stars

Adelaide 36ers head coach Mike Wells has commended his young guns for making a huge impact on Saturday night’s 77-73 loss to Tasmania JackJumpers at the Entertainment Centre.

Wells gave 10 of his 11 players on the roster minutes during the first quarter as he led his side minus suspended import duo Kendric Davis and Montrezl Harrell.

Keanu Rasmussen gave the 36ers some huge minutes off the bench, making an instant impact, scoring nine points and dishing four assists in a brilliant display which impressed Wells.

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“The workman efforts of Sunday (Dech) and Ice (Isaac Humphries) were great, but the bright shining edge of this is the bench guys,” Wells said.

“I thought their minutes were extraordinary, Keanu Rasmussen, his first real significant role within an NBL game.

“He showed a lot of poise there for a young player, his change of pace, his passing and being able to defend, his quickness stood out there on the court.”

Even after falling behind 72-59 during the final quarter, Adelaide surged home, going on a 14-2 run to cut the JackJumpers lead to just one point, but couldn’t land the winning move down the stretch.

“I’m really proud of the group, I thought there was a real competitiveness, a real connection and I thought we stayed in the moment of the game,” Wells said.

“We were really solving the problems that we had out there, and I’m really proud of an effort from a lot of guys.”

Along with Rasmussen, Wells was thrilled with the impact of Nick Marshall, Lat Mayen and Ben Griscti.

“Nick Marshall did some really good things and I couldn’t be prouder of Lat (Mayen), his rebounding and defence was great,” Wells said.

“I really want to point out Ben Griscti, I think it’s easier sometimes for guards because they have the ball all the time, bigs don’t get a lot of minutes for you to duplicate player development within a game.

“He has been working his tail off since I got here, I couldn’t be prouder that he had some positive minutes and impacted the game for us.”

Adelaide will take the same roster on the road to Brisbane for next Friday night’s clash against the Bullets.