Cooks leads Kings to road win against Phoenix

By Matt McQuade

Result: Brydens Lawyers Sydney Kings 92 South East Melbourne Phoenix 87

Stats that matter: Kings 13 three-pointers; Kings 20 assists; Kings 38 points in the paint; Phoenix 18 offensive rebounds

Kings MVP: Xavier Cooks had a career-high night and continues to press for All-NBL honours at the end of the season.

Turning Point: Back-to-back fourth quarter dunks from Cooks gave the Kings a double-figure advantage.

The game was over when: Angus Glover buried a clutch triple from the corner with 27 seconds remaining.

Trending in the right direction: Sydney’s offence, which has been problematic at times this season, showed some positive signs, especially with Jaylen Adams on the floor.

A huge night from star forward Xavier Cooks has carried the Brydens Lawyers Sydney Kings to an important 92-87 win over the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Thursday night at John Cain Arena in Melbourne.

Sydney’s first win on the road this season was powered by a spectacular performance by Cooks, who had a career-high 23 points, including a pair of monster fourth quarter dunks, and added five rebounds and two blocked shots as the purple and gold evened their ledger on the season with a 7-7 record.

Cooks was everywhere on the floor, but there was no doubt his highlight – one that will be replayed for weeks to come – was a stupendous one hand throwdown with just over five minutes remaining, a power jam that absolutely posterised former Sydney Kings centre Dane Pineau and brought the Kings’ bench to their feet in delight.

“Xav was terrific,” Head Coach Chase Buford said.

“I’ve run out of superlatives or words to describe X’s performances these days.”

“Most of the time he does so much for us on both sides of the ball; he changes the game with his energy and playmaking.”

“He’s a terrific player, and we don’t win that game without Xav playing as hard as he did in stretches.”

The Kings also maintained their perfect record against the Phoenix in Melbourne. Sydney has now won all five games they’ve contested at the home stadium for South East Melbourne, but this was a key victory given it keeps the group well within striking distance of the Top Four.

Sydney also got big games from Jarell Martin (20 points, eight rebounds, two assists) and Jaylen Adams (14 points, eight rebounds, six assists), with great cameos from Dejan Vasiljevic (14 points, three assists) and in particular Angus Glover (eight points, four rebounds, five assists) who nailed a pair of huge fourth quarter triples, including a back-breaking bomb from the corner with 27 seconds left that proved to be the game-winner.

“Big time game from Angus and some big-time shots,” Coach Buford said.

Sydney had to overcome 18 Phoenix offensive rebounds converted for 17 second chance points and a whopping 29-14 disparity at the foul line to get the W, even though they never trailed from the three-minute mark of the first period onwards and looked in control for most of the night.

But Chase Buford was not a happy man in the press conference afterwards, labelling his team’s defence during the game as their poorest so far in NBL22.

“I was really displeased with the defensive performance especially and I thought by far that was our worst defensive game of the year,” Coach Buford said.

“That’s what we’ve hung our hat on over the past couple of months.”

“We got beat by 42 the last time I was in this building. I think we gave up less points, but I definitely felt worse about our defence tonight than I did about that one.”

“Credit to South East, they fought hard and did a lot of things to frustrate us, but we’ve been the best defensive rebounding team in the league and we didn’t have it tonight.”

“I don’t think we had it on the rebounds, I don’t think our guards guarded anybody on pick and roll very well; our shifts and our help behind that were poor, and if we want to be a team that makes the finals and does something, we have to be so much better defensively.”

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Indeed, this was one game where Sydney’s offence, which has been an issue at times this season, carried the Kings to the W.

From Vasiljevic and his 11 points in the opening quarter on a perfect four of four as Sydney led 29-22 at the first break – Tom Vodanovich (five points) in his 50^th game for the Kings knocking down a buzzer-beating three to end the period – to Martin’s hyper-efficiency as he went seven of nine from the field, coupled with Cooks’ relentless attack on the rim and Adams knocking down big shots whenever the team needed them; Sydney kept their noses in front for most of the game against a team that was missing their head coach, import point guard and a couple of other key contributors.

South East Melbourne forwards Ryan Broekhoff (25 points, six rebounds) and Mitch Creek (23 points, six rebounds, four assists) kept the pressure on all night, and former Kings’ development player Lachlan Barker (14 points, five rebounds, three assists) – who got the start against his old club – played some effective minutes and gave Sydney problems with his offensive aggression.

Still, the Kings managed to turn back every Phoenix run, even when the home team cut the margin to just three points with a minute remaining and Sydney had back-to-back sloppy possessions resulting in turnovers that gave South East Melbourne a chance to at least send the game to an extra session.

But the Phoenix couldn’t knock down a triple to tie the ballgame, Glover’s three gave the team enough breathing room in crunch time, and Vasiljevic and Martin were able to close it out from the charity stripe with both nailing a pair of nerveless free throws.

The Kings shot the ball at 45% from the field, knocked down 13 three-point baskets at a 40% clip and were 13 of 15 from the foul line. The team had a solid 20 assists in a pointer to how well they moved the ball offensively at times, but they were outrebounded by the Phoenix 48-43 to further illustrate their defensive rebounding struggles.

However, as they say in the business, a win is a win, and at this stage of the competition, this is a squad that will take the victories any way they can get them.

Sydney closes Round 11 on Sunday 13 February, with a game against the Brisbane Bullets at Qudos Bank Arena. Tipoff is scheduled for 3:00pm AEST and tickets for Sunday’s game are now available via Ticketek.

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BRYDENS LAWYERS SYDNEY KINGS 92 (Cooks 23, Martin 20, Adams 14, Vasiljevic 14)
SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 87 (Broekhoff 25, Creek 23, Barker 11) at John Cain Arena, Melbourne.

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