‘Swiss Army Knife’ fires Sixers to win over JackJumpers
Shayne Hope |
Red-hot Zylan Cheatham has fired the Adelaide 36ers to a 97-86 road win over injury-hit Tasmania, surviving a brief late scare in a largely one-sided NBL affair.
Cheatham ripped the game away from the hosts in Hobart on Thursday night and led all scorers with a personal season-high 27 points.
The American power forward also produced 14 rebounds, four assists and a pair of huge blocks in his best performance for the Sixers to date.
He helped Adelaide to an early double-figure advantage that ballooned to 28 points after half-time, before a dogged Tasmania cut the deficit back to single figures in the dying stages.
The Sixers steadied and advanced to 8-3 for the season – with Cheatham fittingly scoring their last three points from the foul line – ahead of a home clash with last-placed Cairns on Sunday.
The win came despite five-time MVP Bryce Cotton having an off night with 12 points on 2-of-10 shooting, as well as four turnovers.
Cotton was still one of six Adelaide scorers in double figures, with DJ Vasiljevic getting hot in the second half to finish with 14 points off the bench.
His starting replacement Matt Kenyon kept the dangerous Bryce Hamilton under wraps, while Isaac Humphries (10 points, four blocks) also played a big role.
Sixers coach Mike Wells paid tribute to the well-rounded team performance but reserved special credit for his “Swiss Army Knife” Cheatham.
“He can do so many different things and he’s all in on competing and defending and rebounding,” Wells said.
“I know he scored tonight and I’m sure that he absolutely loved to score … so when he gets a chance to score and do those things it makes it a little more fun.”
Tasmania slipped to 5-8 with a fifth straight defeat at home, where they have a horror 1-6 record this season.
The JackJumpers struggled without captain Will Magnay (knee), who joined import David Johnson (calf) and Anthony Drmic (back) on the sidelines.
Tyger Campbell (20 points), stand-in skipper Majok Deng (17) and Josh Bannan (16) top-scored for the home side.
“Our guys continued to fight, which was a really good sign, and they will always continue to fight – whether we’re up or down,” JackJumpers coach Scott Roth said.
“It could’ve been quite ugly there at one point or another but they just dug in and found a way to at least make it interesting down the stretch there.
“So there are some positives to take out of that.
“I don’t really know how much you learn by losing but ultimately we just don’t have enough bullets in the chamber to score enough points consecutively to put scoreboard pressure on.”
Tasmania have an extended eight-day break before an away game against Perth next Friday night.
AAP
