News Article

DJ says victory means more than record

19 Jan

3 mins read

Written By

Dale Fletcher

“To bounce back and play like we did was really impressive from the group.”

Adelaide 36ers captain DJ Vasiljevic said his first quarter hot shooting performance would have meant nothing without the victory in Cairns on Sunday afternoon.

Vasiljevic swished seven of his equal NBL record 10 three-pointers in the first 10 minutes to lead his side to a much-needed 99-75 win at Cairns Convention Centre.

The captain said he was thrilled with how his side rebounded from Friday night’s loss against the Wildcats in Perth.

“We could have dropped our heads (after the Perth loss), but we bounced back,” Vasiljevic said post-game.

“We drop a game in Tassie where we shouldn’t have lost, and we bounced back against Illawarra at home.

“There were some mistakes we made in Perth, but we competed really well for about 35 minutes.

“But to bounce back and play like we did was really impressive from the group.”

Head coach Mike Wells agreed with Vasiljevic, praising the entire club for the professionalism it showed on one of the longest road trips in the NBL.

“Since the Sydney game we are 4-2 and played some really, really good minutes, we have won a lot of quarters,” Wells said.

“The group is continuing to grow, they were locked in from the meeting this morning.

“We wanted to set the tone early, we wanted to set the tone at the defensive end.”

Vasiljevic admitted he was aiming for an 11^th triple, which would have given him the outright record for the NBL in the 40-minute era.

“Hell yeah I was, I will hear it from my dad later on that I should’ve made more, but I’m top of the leaderboard now I’ve done it two times,” Vasiljevic said.