Bullets fire down the stretch in win over 36ers

It was an entertaining Monday night in the NBL with the Brisbane Bullets prevailing 93-85 against the Adelaide 36ers. 

The two teams were meeting for the second time inside eight days after playing out a high-scoring and entertaining affair in Brisbane last Sunday.

The Bullets won that by a point and the two out of playoff contention teams were looking to find some late season momentum at Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Monday night.

Brisbane were without import forward Robert Franks in addition to Nathan Sobey and Tyrell Harrison. Both Jason Cadee and Lamar Patterson led the young group with poise, while Bullets Next Star Tom Digbeu stepped up.

He continued his momentum since grabbing his increased opportunity in recent games and delivered a career-high 15 points, four assists and two rebounds including hitting 2/4 from beyond the arc.

Veteran, Jason Cadee came up huge late, getting a critical stop and draining a three in the dying seconds to stave off Adelaide's late charge. He finished with 15 points and four assists including 3/7 from downtown

Lamar Patterson also produced 15 points, Deng Deng added 14 points and eight rebounds, while Jack Salt toughed it out inside with eight points and seven boards.

Anthony Drmic was up and about early, opening the game up with a triple for Brisbane against his old team, but Adelaide soon got on top

Adelaide's, Johnson and McCarron then drained three's to put the Sixers up 17-7, but Brisbane steadied well, firstly through Jason Cadee with seven points and then Digbeu knocking one down from deep to limit Adelaide's lead at quarter-time to a point.

The Bullets then worked their way on top to start the second term with Digbeu and Deng Deng combining for a 6-1 run. 

Four points to Lamar Patterson then kept the Bullets on top but again the 36ers responded. Sotto was aggressive and made three successive trips to the foul line and then a triple from McCarron put the home team narrowly in front, but scores were all square at 41-41 half-time.

Brisbane opened up the second half with triples to Drmic, Patterson and Tanner Krebs, and then took over the game. By the time Cadee also connected from beyond the arc, they were up 10 and were still leading by that margin at three quarter-time.

Young guns Digbeu and Sotto traded three balls to open the fourth quarter but the Bullets were enjoying their momentum and a couple of nice buckets to Jack Salt opposed to Sotto, and then five points to Deng Deng had the margin out to 13.

The Sixers were able to respond with the next seven points to make it a six-point ball game and further narrowed it to four. Eventually a triple from King and free-throws from Sotto made it a two-point game with 27 seconds on the clock.

Back in the city he used to call home, it was Cadee that called game with a triple to seal Brisbane's win.

The Bullets will be finishing the rest of their season on the road heading to Melbourne to play United on Saturday, and then the Taipans in Cairns in Round 21.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 19

ADELAIDE 36ERS 85 (Sotto 21, McCarron 17, Johnson 12)

BRISBANE BULLETS 93 (Digbeu 15, Patterson 15, Cadee 15) 

BOX SCORE