Adelaide forces a decider
ADELAIDE has survived a scare to win Game 4 of its NBL grand final series 90-81, levelling the ledger 2-2 and forcing a championship decider against Melbourne United next Saturday.
After the 36ers dominated the first half to lead 55-31 yesterday in Adelaide, United embarked on a stunning secondhalf fightback.
Melbourne reduced the margin to 13 points at threequarter-time before further inroads were made in the fourth as Josh Boone’s dunk midway through the term made it a four-point ball game.
The silverware was suddenly in United’s sights.
Adelaide rallied through the coolness of Ramone Moore before a clutch corner three to Johnson (21 points, nine rebounds) and the fouling out of Tai Wesley, David Barlow and Boone ended Melbourne’s brave challenge.
Nathan Sobey (16 points), who was ejected at halftime of Friday’s spiteful Game 3 defeat at Hisense Arena and subsequently fined for headbutting, sparked the Sixers early before Casey Prather (23 points) spearheaded United’s gallant comeback.
Incredibly, Melbourne had 25 field-goal attempts to Adelaide’s 10 in the opening term, but the 36ers’ sizzling 80 per cent clip plus a massive advantage in free throw attempts (16-1) saw them skip ahead 29-21.
United’s nightmare escalated in the second stanza as the margin blew out to 24 points at halftime. The visitors shot 22 per cent from the field for the term and one-of-15 from threepoint territory across the opening half.
Somehow United regrouped to outscore Adelaide 27-16 in the third with a Prather-inspired 10-2 flurry to close the quarter, whittling the margin back to 71-58 at the final break.
Melbourne wasn’t done, dominating early in the fourth to make it a 21-4 overall run before the Sixers ensured the most riveting grand final series in the NBL’s 40-year history will go the distance on Easter Saturday in Melbourne.