Wells: Sixers excited to be in the Ignite Cup final

Adelaide 36ers Head Coach Mike Wells says his side will relish the chance to play in the final of the inaugural Ignite Cup presented by Disney+ as an ideal warm-up for the NBL finals.

The Sixers booked a return to the Gold Coast for next month’s cup final with a 105 to 74 win over Brisbane on Wednesday night, and will play New Zealand in that game.

Wednesday night’s final margin perhaps flattered the Sixers to some extent because they didn’t have it all their own way, but Wells was happy that his side stuck at it and overcame the Bullets’ early resistance.

He was happier that his side will have a chance to play for the prize money of the in-season tournament, in a pre-playoff big-game atmosphere.

“I was really, really excited about the Ignite Cup,” Wells said after the game.

“We made it a goal to try to win it. We wanted to be in the championship. We talked about it.

“I thought it was really, really important to have those type of goals where we could boil it down and talk about quarter wins, and then game wins, and, to play in another game, and sort of an elimination game.

“I gotta be honest with you, I just wanted my guys to have a chance to play for some more money.

“I think it's a really cool thing. I loved the in-season tournament when I was in the NBA and I really liked the fact that we've started a cup and a tournament like this.”

While Brisbane had won just once in its past 16 games, the Bullets went into Wednesday night’s game having won seven of the last eight encounters in Queensland against the Sixers.

But, as Wells explained, the visitors were keen to get Ignite Cup points and came out firing, putting 33 points on the board in the first quarter with all nine players who saw court time hitting the scoreboard and the side going at 85 per-cent from the field.

A nine-point quarter time advantage gave the Sixers the first of their Ignite Cup points but the Bullets showed they wouldn’t have it all their own way, firing back with a 22-19 second period to take the second of the available points.

Big man Jacob Holt was proving hard to stop for the Bullets with 17 points to the main break while the Sixers’ free flowing offence from the first period evaporated before the half.

What had looked to be a high scoring game slowed drastically as both sides tightened up in defence. The Sixers restricted the Bullets to just nine points for the third period while scoring just 16 themselves but it was enough to ensure another Ignite Cup point for Wells’ side.

While the margin continued to grow in the final period, so too did the tension between the sides. An incident between Hunter Maldonado and Nick Rakocevic saw both sides engage in a melee on the baseline with three minutes to play, and after a lengthy delay, both players along with Bullet Terry Taylor and three Brisbane bench players were ejected from the game.

The incident also saw Bryce Cotton step to the line for four free throws, and from there the floodgates opened with Cotton and Flynn Cameron finding their range from beyond the arc to push the margin beyond 30 points and ensure a return to the Gold Coast for the Ignite Cup final on February 22.

Wells condemned the actions of some of the Brisbane players but said it would be up to the NBL to take a deeper look at the incident with player and spectator safety at the forefront of his concern.

“To me, that's not basketball,” he said.

“We can play, we can compete, we can get after it. This is a hard playing league, and people don't cross the line, and that crossed the line…

“We've been on the road for a while, and we really want to be the best version of ourselves,” he added. “So when something goes like that, I just don't want anybody to get hurt. We never want that, right? We want to play basketball, compete, and, when I got down there, what I'm physically seeing, you know, concerned me.”

After four straight road games, the Sixers next return to the Adelaide Entertainment Centre for a big game against the second placed South East Melbourne Phoenix on Saturday evening.