A stunning performance from Montrezl Harrell dragged the Adelaide 36ers to a brilliant overtime win against on Friday night, with Kendric Davis getting hot down the stretch as the Sixers ran down the Cairns Taipans in a thriller.
The 36ers trailed by as much as 19 points after a disjointed first-half effort, but Harrell came up big with 36 points – a season-high for any NBL player – and pulled down 16 rebounds as the home side rallied to make it nine wins in a row at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.
Davis overcame a difficult first half to be a difference-maker when it counted, finishing with 29 points as Adelaide improved to a 5-3 record without injured centre Isaac Humphries (calf).
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It was a brave performance by the Taipans, who were on a three-game losing run heading into the match and missing injured stars Tanner Groves (calf) and Taran Armstrong (ankle), with Pedro Bradshaw leaving the game with an ankle injury in the third quarter.
FRANTIC FINALE
With his team trailing by three points with 12 seconds left, Sam Waardenburg was fouled as his lay-up flirted with the rim before falling in and then converted his free throw to take it to overtime at 88-88.
The home side went on a 5-0 run to start overtime and Waardenburg fouled out soon after, Harrell made his fifth block after, but there was more drama to come.
Leading by four points with 10 seconds remaining, Adelaide turned the ball over, but Davis was fouled and drained two shots from the line to secure a famous win.
HARRELL HUGE
Harrell was huge for the home side from the outset, the star import with a game-high eight points at the first break and 15 at the half to be the only Sixer in double figures.
He started on 4-from-4 shooting from the floor and with his teammates struggling on defence, came up with four emphatic first-half blocks.
Harrell knocked down four points in an 11-2 run to start the third term, and lit up the crowd time and time again in his best performance as a Sixer.
Fiery clash in all Melbourne NBL battle | 00:48
LONG-RANGE DAGGERS
The 36ers took the best three-point shooting percentage in the league into the clash, but the stark difference between the sides at the main break was Adelaide’s awful output from long range and the visitors’ brilliance.
The out-of-sorts home side managed 3-from-13 shooting from outside the arc and Cairns launched a series of long-range daggers to be a jaw-dropping 10-from-18 to set up a commanding 16-point lead.
Three Taipans – Rob Edwards, Dillon Stith and former Sixer Kyrin Galloway – had three triples in the first half, while Adelaide’s three-point stars DJ Vasiljevic and Kendric Davis were both a stone cold 0-4, with six and eight points respectively.
The Snakes’ 59 points was their highest first-half total of the season, and the most Adelaide has conceded.
The Sixers finished 9-from-30 from long range, Vasiljevic 2-from-11 and Davis 1-from-8, Edwards leading his side with a team-high 27 points.
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