Sobey leads the way with 33 as SEM Phoenix defeat Kings in Thursday night shootout

Written by Lachlan Sherriff

(Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

After a dominant victory against Illawarra on Saturday which saw South East Melbourne cement themselves as true contenders this season, the Phoenix once again returned to John Cain Arena for another night of basketball.

Their opponent, the Sydney Kings, were also in good form, coming off their own blowout win against Perth.

With both teams playing high off momentum, we were treated to a pretty even first quarter. Nathan Sobey did what he did best and consistently found the basket early on, ending the first quarter with ten points on 4/6 shooting. Thanks to his efforts, the Phoenix had a narrow lead at quarter time, 22-20.

For the away side, Kendric Davis started hot with a team high six points at quarter time. Davis has 25 points against Perth in the previous weekend, and everyone in the building knew he was more then capable of doing it again.

It looked like we were set for a classic dual between two of the best guards in the league in Sobey and Davis. And while they would continue to score, so did two other guards - Owen Foxwell and Matthew Dellavedova.

With the Kings perimeter defence focusing on Sobey, Foxwell began to thrive. By half time, Foxwell had twelve points, which was more then he had scored in South East Melbourne's last two games against Adelaide and Illawarra combined. Foxwell also had four assists and three rebounds at the end of the first half.

As for Dellavedova, he grew into the game on both sides of the ball, and ended the second quarter with twelve points and two assists. But the real threat for the Kings came from their center, as the Phoenix bigs had no answer for Tim Soares.

To credit the Phoenix's big men, they were keeping Xavier Cooks quiet. But it came with a cost, as Soares basically got to score at free will. While Cooks took up the attention in the paint, Soares went behind the three point line and made the Phoenix pay. By half time, Soares had twelve points, and was shooting 2/3 from three.

Nonetheless, Nathan Sobey stayed hot, and was the game's top scorer at half time with fifteen points. But it wouldn't be enough for the lead, as Sydney went into the locker room at the end of the first half leading 48-45. Davis, Dellavedova and Soares had 37 of those 48 points.

With so many different players having a great scoring night, it probably comes as no surprise that the third quarter was the most high scoring one yet. Thankfully for the home crowd, it was South East Melbourne doing the majority of the scoring. The Phoenix won the third quarter 34-25 and led 79-73 at three quarter time.

Kendric Davis was still scoring, with 23 points at the end of the third, but South East Melbourne were doing a much better job on Soares and Dellavedova. On the other end, the Phoenix had four players who had scored double digits at three quarter time, with Hunter Maldonado and Wes Iwundu joining Sobey and Foxwell. Sobey had nineteen points at the end of the third, while Foxwell had fifteen and seven assists.

But the hero of the fourth quarter would be Jordan Hunter, who immediately came out knocked down back to back threes at the start of the fourth quarter. The Phoenix had all the momentum, and John Cain Arena was loving it.

(Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

From there on, the Phoenix never looked back. The final ten minutes would be the most one-sided of the night, as the Phoenix stormed home to a 112-95 win.

Nathan Sobey, who put the icing on the cake at the end of the game with back to back threes, was the top scorer of the game with 33 points. Hunter Maldonado and Owen Foxwell both had seventeen points, with the latter also posting eight assists. Jordan Hunter showed his scoring ability in the final quarter, ending with fifteen points, while Wes Iwundu contributed to the scoring with ten points. The Phoenix showed tonight that they've got multiple guys who can put the ball in the basket when they need to, and coach Josh King couldn't be happier.

"We had multiple guys play well and perform, especially on (the offensive) side of the ball. Obviously, Sobes (Nathan Sobey) had it going, he was cooking. But we had several guys step up on the offensive side of the ball. Jordy Hunter was brilliant in the second half. Foxy (Owen Foxwell) was good throughout the game. He got into a little bit of foul trouble. Hunter Maldonado had a really good floor game when Foxy got in foul trouble. He hit some big shots. Wes (Iwundu) came in and banged a couple shots. But, again, we don't want to just hang our hat on the offensive end. We want to play on both sides of the floor. And I thought for the most part tonight we were able to do that."

- Josh King on the Phoenix's offensive output

As for Sydney, they did well to stay with a good SEM Phoenix team for three quarters. The fourth quarter wasn't up to standards, but coach Brian Goorjian has faith in his team working it out soon.

"We're a new group. And when you look at groups of five, there's not a lot of them playing together yet as a group. And in these games we lose, certain ones haven't clicked. Tonight we didn't get great contribution from guys that we have been getting really good contribution from in the wins. And certain groups just looked uncomfortable together under the pressure."

- Brian Goorjian on what went wrong for Sydney

SEM Phoenix will now have an extended period off, and will return to the court in nine days to play the Bullets in Brisbane. For the Kings, they'll return to their home court this Sunday to take on the JackJumpers.