Tristan Prentice

Hawks dance to Conger tune over Sixers

Demitrius Conger has continued the Illawarra revival with a 26 point demolition in the Hawks 96-87 win over the Adelaide 36ers.

The aggressive Hawk forward was a constant danger then exploded in the second half – Photo by Zimbio

Conger looked in trouble in the first minute after registering a charging foul. Creek then led the Sixers on a 7-0 run, before two quick fouls on Matt Hodgson saw the crowd introduced to import Josh Childress for the first time in the Fortress. The Sixers led 17-6 but after a timeout the Hawks swooped back through Conger and Nick Kay. A Drmic miss brought the crowd to life though as Childress welcomed himself to the fans with a two hand put back rim rattler complete with head shake. Hawks big man Delvon Johnson then got one back off an influential Rotnei Clarke to close it to 30-20 at the first break.

The Hawks opened the second quarter with a defensive grind sucking the life out of the crowd before a fade away from Childress and a DJ single handed jam took the Sixers out to double figures. The Childress influence was evident as the Hawks burned a timeout 41-29 with 4:00 left. Childress then blocked another then dropped a triple in the transition until Clarke went on a 5-0 run to get it back under doubles. Conger emerging as a game breaker in the second half put the lid on it and it was 50-39 at the half.

At halftime, Clarke had 13 points and 7 rebounds but was only 1-3 from beyond the arc, Shannon Shorter on the other hand had 12 points and 6 rebounds while Childress 8 points were at 75% from the field. Rebounds had been dominated by the Sixers but closed to 27-24 at half while they also led the bench points 18-5.

A second offensive foul on Conger opened the third before a couple of Shorter turnovers caused coach Joey Wright to let him know in uncertain terms he wasn’t happy. Conger then drained a triple before an efficient Ramone Moore scored through heavy traffic under the basket. Conger was still causing the Sixers headaches but they still led 72-63 at the final change.

Clarke opened the fourth with two triples, which caused Wright to burn a timeout. DJ then stripped guard Rhys Martin on a drive but the Sixers continued to give up easy boards and take bad shots from the Hawks extended pressure. A Teys blocking foul which could’ve been called play-on on replay steered the momentumn to the Hawks with Moore desperately trying to keep the Sixers in the game. A Martin 5-0 run and triples to Conger, Mitch Norton and an Ogilvy slam finished it for the Hawks in the crowd sapping 96-87 win.

Moore was consistent and made good decisions as he shot his way to a 24 point and 5 rebound performance while Creek kept ticking over the scoring over the match but faded for 14 points and 9 rebounds.

Conger scored 17 of his 26 points in the second half and was clearly the difference making it a double double with 10 rebounds. Rotnei Clarke was equally as efficient with 24 points and 8 rebounds.

The Sixers next Saturday have a date with their former NBL MVP against the Sydney Kings while the Hawks will look to push on and up the ladder against the same opponent Thursday. With plenty on the line for the Sixers and a much more competitive Kings with Randle rolling into town, next weeks match will certainly determine where the Sixers are early in the season.

Round 6 – NBL 2017/18 – ADELAIDE 36ERS VS ILLAWARRA HAWKS PREVIEW

The Fortress will resemble a movie set this coming Saturday night as the Sixers and the Hawks present their version of an action classic, the Fast and the Furious.

"We want our cheese-burgers!!!" It's too bad Holyfield isn't still suited up for the Hawks, we'd feel we are a chance for a free snack on the way home - Photo by Zimbio

When: 7:00pm (ACDT), Saturday, 11^th November

Where: Titanium Security Arena, Adelaide

Broadcast: NBL TV, Fox Sports, Sky Sports

Last time they met:

SF3 2016/17: Adelaide 36ers 98 (Randle 26, Sobey 22) defeated by Illawarra Hawks 106 (Clarke 20, Harris 17, Martin 13, Ellis 11) at Titanium Security Arena

CROSS OVER DRIBBLE FLASHBACK:

ROUND 21 1995: ADELAIDE 36ERS VS WOLLONGONG HAWKS

This week we head back to the final regular round of the 1995 season where the 36ers had sealed their position in the finals bracket in 5^th were looking to take some momentum into the finals series. Wollongong had come flying through from the bottom of the ladder but a win for them would draw them against a much less fancied finals opponent than the South East Melbourne Magic, so there was still plenty on the line. The opening half was a tight affair as the 36ers led by their guard Brett Maher and “chairman of the boards” Mark Davis took the lead, but champion Hawks centre Chuck Harmison and regular 36ers trouble-man power forward Melvin Thomas had the 36ers only up by two points at the half, 42-40.

In the third quarter the 36ers made their move, in his sadly last season with the club, import Robert Rose came to life to score the majority of his 21 points in the second half as the 36ers took the ascendancy in the match. A 28-18 third quarter saw the 36ers take a 12-point lead into the final change with the Hawks un-able to break anymore than two points into the margin in the final stanza. The 36ers would then move onto to face the tricky Newcastle Falcons while the Hawks would find themselves in a match up against the Magic and after taking game one would bow out of the finals series the first week.

Adelaide 36ers 84 (Maher 22, Rose 21, Davis 17, Ninnis 11) defeated Wollongong Hawks 74 (M Thomas 23, Harmison 18, Lafleur 13) at the Clipsal Powerhouse

Key Match-Ups:

Mitch Creek vs. Demitrius Conger

Creek has had excellent impact against the Hawks in recent times and it shows in his production including his opening 24-point match last season against the Hawks in their gym. The additions to his game are going to have Hawks coach Rob Beveridge extremely worried including an improved clip of shooting the ball which Bevo can’t afford to leave open and his role in the Sixers better rotations through their half-court offensive system.

Conger however is the type of player the Sixers have not defended well against in the past and with an aggressive mind-set and dribble penetration a weapon for the small forward, the Sixers talk off the ball as to when he is moving is going to be crucial to help the front court setup with their bodies on the line.

Nathan Sobey vs. Mitch Norton

We know this is a must watch for Saturday night more for how Sobey will come out with for his coach after the comments made during the week about all. As suspected all along by this journalist, there is simply a situation where a coach is telling their player they need to do more and the player realising that is the case even though the player’s average form is still better than some others in the squad. I expect we’ll see a much happier Wright if Sobey scores low double figures but has multiple steals, rebounds, assists and the team wins instead of twenty plus points and the team suffers a loss.

If I was Beveridge, then I’d be most worried about the impact a fired up Sobey could have in the match. Therefore, I’m sending an antagonising defender in Mitch Norton to him to quell his influence. Norton wore former import (and we note now Kings player) Jerome Randle like a glove over semi-final game two and three particularly lasts season. If Norton can cut Sobey’s influence from the Sixers, the full-court game is much harder for them to execute without Sobey’s lane runs.

Josh Childress vs Tim Coenraad

One Sixer very keen to make an impression in front of his new home-crowd will be Childress and after being a visiting player a few seasons ago, no doubt he’ll welcome being on the other end. Childress is a sleeping giant in the NBL and if as we suspect it clicks either this week or next week we should start to see some decent numbers from the ex-NBA swingman. We do know so far that he is extremely efficient and rarely wastes the ball as his statistics show.

If you are a Sixers defender this Saturday night and you see a number 22 on the floor in a red (or white jersey) then you better get your skates on and close out that three ball. Coenraad if you look at previous matches is in my top five deadliest corner three-point specialists of all time at the Fortress, he is money consistently from that corner. I’d consider him to more of a threat than Forman although careful attention should also be paid to that veteran beyond the arc as well.

The Last Play

Coach Joey Wright can now put aside last week’s away match implosion against United and get back to the business of winning basketball games and the next few weeks don’t come much bigger. A rematch against the team that knocked them out of title contention in the semis then out of nowhere (although sources were very strong in the past weeks it would happen) their NBL MVP will suit up for the Kings the following week in scenes that could possibly (let’s hope a little grace is shown) mirror Mark Bradtke’s return with the Melbourne Tigers after a “European” holiday.

One guarantee is that this game will be fast, high-scoring, very physical between the guards and that the Sixers will be anxious to protect the home court. This will be close and come down to the wire and we might see some overtime action and the most important thing, it’s our first shot at a free cheeseburger on the way home from the local HJs, too bad Michael “Hollywood” field isn’t suiting up.

36ers by 3 points

Written by Tristan Prentice

Digging for treasure but what is the cost?

We live in an age where we hunt for information for personal glory, but do we realise that our hunting may be to the detriment of others?

36ers passionate man Mitch Creek is always quick to defend his club, but should he have to? Photo by Zimbio

If you’re a journalist in the NBL at the moment, there are plenty of things to dig for story wise early this season. Many questions with little answers are creating pressure for clubs in the competition and I don’t think many realise it may be starting to affect the performance of the clubs that the fans support. As much as we cling to the old adage that professionals can handle the criticism and the flack we as fans give our own team, perhaps we need to recognise that this has died and our professionals are more human than they’ve ever been in feeling the pressure from their fan base to perform.

As someone who’s been on the inside of a professional club like Adelaide, you have no idea about the positive impact some players who appear to “do nothing” in the eyes of the public have on their club. The only place you have to look for an example you’ll understand is in your own team in your weekly competition. How often do you look at a box score from your team’s game and see a player with four fouls and no points, an opposition team sees that and probably thinks that player has no impact on the match. Unless they watched the game they didn’t see that player rebound it more than double the team, make passes which set up baskets, provided tenacity in defence and vocally call screens and shooters for the opposition. Without that player that night the team would’ve probably lost the game without that crucial contribution. That’s not even realising that player helps the team stick together like glue at a training session mid-week which you don’t see.

Two key questions I’ve heard raised recently have irked me personally from fans and supporters of the NBL, the first is why given the Sydney Kings have struggled why has Tom Garlepp not been playing significant minutes for the Kings? Of course it’s fun like I said in my last article to guess and surmise about the reasons around the office water-cooler but to create speculation publicly just to get noticed by creating stories and claim them as fact, that’s pushing it into territory that is the coaching staff of that club’s responsibility to release that information. Do you really think we as journalists and supporters always have all the information on the player and coaching staff and their training, personal life off-court and dealings to really make a clear appraisal? Apart from the Sydney Kings management and the inner sanctum of the club, no one really knows the answer to the original question. We need to consider it could be something quite private to the individuals involved and in reality they are far more experienced and better at handling the situation than we are as supporters.

The closer to home one of course is the seeming speculation of Nathan Sobey and Joey Wright having consistent disagreements week in week out. Let me be the first to highlight that Wright is consistent in the way he talks about his players weaknesses and strengths in public. I take the recent comments about Majok Deng as an example where Wright said that he can do anything offensively but defence is what he needs to work hard on. If you look closely, the games that Deng has played quality defence he has seen more minutes while also touching double figures frequently on the same night. We heard Sobey and Wright say their piece when asked yesterday during the NBL coverage so rather than putting pressure on the both of them to give answers about the situation, we should now give them their space and allow them to get back to doing what their job is, winning games of basketball for the state of South Australia.

The passionate Mitch Creek has consistently gotten on the front foot after losses like yesterday’s against Melbourne United. He apologised again directly to fans and whilst this is a credit to him and his character for taking responsibility, it’s because of fans chucking criticism at our team that players feel rather than letting the group get back to working hard they have to instead feel they have to write responses to a fan base that doesn’t know about everything going on in the inner sanctum.

Whilst this is basketball related, we can apply this to our lives off the court as well. We need to realise that by making our opinions based on what we see on the surface only and by not really knowing what’s happening beneath the surface, we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg of the individual. Perhaps we shouldn’t judge the individual and the situation until we know the true full facts then rather than ridicule, support them to be better. On the court, it can be the difference in winning a championship.