Wells thrilled with 36ers’ response on the road

Adelaide 36ers head coach Mike Wells has praised his side’s resilience after Monday night’s 111-96 win over Sydney Kings at Qudos Bank Arena.

The victory in the Harbour City snapped a five-game losing streak on the road and was the club’s second win in the past nine outings.

Wells said the awesome foursome of Kendric Davis, Montrezl Harrell, captain DJ Vasiljevic and Isaac Humphries stood up and led from the front.

“There is a prideful group in there, it takes a while to get your group back together,” Wells said post-game.

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“There is a time and place where you got to gel and get a rhythm back and we haven’t had any sort of consistency within rotations and players and who’s in, and who’s out.

“The group wanted to go out there and prove something and I couldn’t be more proud of the effort.”

Davis led the way with 30 points and nine assists, while Harrell partnered 25 points with 10 rebounds, Vasiljevic got hot for 19 points and Humphries was huge in the paint for 17 points and six rebounds.

“Rebounding has been an issue for us this season, it wasn’t tonight, a lot of good stuff out there,” Wells said.

But it was the defensive intent, especially in the opening quarter when Adelaide allowed the Kings to score only 12 points, which set the tone.

“I wanted a really hungry aggressive group, any time you see those results, especially early when you’re flying around contesting shots and getting out to three-point shooters,” Wells said.

“They were locked in, everything was super, super positive, but our competitiveness and our toughness.

“It didn’t matter what scheme we were doing, I could have called any play out there and we would have gone and execute on both ends tonight.”

Wells said his squad is almost back at full strength, with only Sunday Dech (hamstring) to come back into the line-up.

“It’s good to almost have our group back together, it’s been a long time,” Wells said.

“The group wants to win, we have been trying.

“It’s been an interesting six plus weeks, it’s been something we have had to go through.

“There is more ahead for this group, we know we have the players, now we just have to go out and do it.”

Adelaide will be back in action on Saturday night when the 36ers host Melbourne United at the Entertainment Centre from 5pm ACDT.