Humphries and support cast keep 36ers winning

With Isaac Humphries continuing the form of his life and so many of his Adelaide 36ers teammates contributing strongly, the Sixers delivered a third straight win beating the Sydney Kings 85-80 on Saturday night.

The 36ers were playing a sixth straight home game at Adelaide Entertainment Centre and with a season-high crowd of 7087 turning out to cheer the team on, they delivered a strong all-round performance.

The Kings might have been a little down on manpower, but still weren’t short on quality or fighting spirit, so the 36ers had to fight right to the end.

But they did enough to secure the five-point win and make it three in-a-row, and to improve to 4-2 after three rounds of the 2021 NBL season.

The Sixers broke the game open to start the second quarter with a 16-1 run and holding the Kings field goal-less for more than six minutes to end up heading into half-time up 43-36.

Sydney fought back and were within three points with three minutes of the game to go. But Sunday Dech and Humphries combined for a 6-0 run that ended up being enough to secure the five-point win.

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Humphries continued the form of his career and set a new NBL-high with 27 points against his former team to go with nine rebounds on 13/20 shooting.

He had plenty of help too and his growing frontcourt partnership with Daniel Johnson was again unstoppable. Johnson had another 16 points, four rebounds and four assists.

Tony Crocker is growing into life in the NBL nicely too and produced another 13 points, six rebounds and three assists on 3/6 shooting from downtown while Sunday Dech might be the unheralded hero of this winning run.

On top of another impressive defensive performance helping to keep Casper Ware to a relatively quiet night, Dech finished with 13 points and five rebounds.

Josh Giddey added another five points, six rebounds and four assists, Donald Sloan five points and four assists, Jack McVeigh four points and three boards, and Keanu Pinder two points and two blocks.

Sixers coach Conner Henry was especially happy with the defensive effort over three quarters and is looking forward to now having a full week in between games.

"Other than the fourth quarter defensively we played a pretty solid game and we did give a bunch of points back in that fourth," Henry said.

"We had six turnovers going into that and we had six in that quarter so we doubled that and didn’t handle their pressure. They got up in on us and we got a little tired, but we withstood their run when we had to and it's good to have a week off now. 

"We're going to rest up and heal some things that we've got some issues with and get ready for next Saturday."

It was a strong start from the 36ers and it was Isaac Humphries and Daniel Johnson setting the tone inside. They combined for a 9-3 run just between the two of them but rookie DJ Vasiljevic's shooting was keeping Sydney close, and even saw them claim the lead.

The Kings still led 24-22 after one but then the 36ers opened the second quarter on fire starting with a Tony Crocker three ball. Humphries then made two more buckets inside and Crocker nailed another triple.

Humphries hit two more shots, Josh Giddey scored and a remarkable six-minute run of 16-1 saw the 36ers up 13. Adelaide held Sydney to without a field goal and one solitary point in more than six minutes of the quarter.

But the Kings did finish the half on a 7-2 run to cut the lead of the 36ers to 43-36 on the back of a combined 23 points from Johnson and Humphries.

Sydney came out a different outfit after half-time and within five minutes had got within three points before a steadying three ball from Johnson followed up by buckets from Humphries and Giddey to resettle a double-digit lead, with the 36ers up 11 after three.

Adelaide again blew it wide open to start the fourth with the opening six points to lead by a game high 17. Sydney wouldn’t go away, though, and triples from Brad Newley, Casper Ware and Shaun Bruce sparked a 14-2 run to make a game of it again.

A steal on Giddey and breakaway layup from Ware and then another turnover and basket from Bruce helped Sydney get within three and with three minutes left, the 36ers needed to steady.

They did with the next six points including two impressive Sunday Dech makes. A couple of Humphries throwdowns sealed the deal and Adelaide could celebrate the third consecutive win.

Adelaide and Sydney now both have a week's break before doing it all again at the same venue next Saturday night.

2020/21 Hungry Jack's NBL Season - Round 3

ADELAIDE 36ERS 85 (Humphries 27, Johnson 16, Dech 13, Crocker 13)

SYDNEY KINGS 80 (Vasiljevic 28, Ware 15, Martin 13) 

Box Score

Game highlights available here

Press conference with Conner Henry and Sunday Dech here

Adelaide 36ers Upcoming Games

Saturday, 6 February 2021
Adelaide Entertainment Centre
Adelaide 36ers v Sydney Kings
Tip-off 7.30pm

Tickets are available for purchase via Ticketek

Adelaide 36ers Memberships are available, for more information click here