Cotton was at his trademark best in his first league outing for Adelaide since switching from Perth in the off-season, registering 39 points, 6\/9 from three-point range and six assists to leave a fighting Brisbane Bullets with no answers at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.<\/p>\n
The Sixers jumped out to steady eight and nine points leads in the first half before Cotton\u2019s fifth three-pointer late in the third finally lifted the home side to their first double-digit advantage of the game.<\/p>\n
The Bullets, without Javon Freeman-Liberty, fought back and made it a five-point game with 90 seconds left but a clutch Cotton drew a foul to knock down two free throws as the Sixers held on to win 87-80.<\/p>\n
Alongside the five-time NBL champion, Zylan Cheatham stood up with 14 boards, eight points, five assists and three steals, while Isaac Humphries was influential with 13 points and six rebounds.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1758410048_740_poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
It was the Sixers\u2019 first win in a season opener since 2015 and a result which breaks a four-game losing streak against the Bullets.<\/p>\n
Bullets captain Tyrell Harrison added to his NBA credentials with 17 points, 12 rebounds and three assists and steals. Casey Prather had a team-high 20 points and six assists while Alex Ducas had 16 points and 3\/7 from three-point range.<\/p>\n
Wildcats begin post Cotton era | 00:55<\/p>\n
SHOW TIME<\/p>\n
A wide open dunk from Cheatham in the third quarter followed by Cotton sending his opponent to the floor for a wide open mid-range two had the sold-out 9,429 crowd rocking.<\/p>\n
It was a wonderful glimpse of the new Sixers side that seems to be one with the ingredients of one of, if not, the most entertaining team to watch in the competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow good is that to have that explosive athleticism,\u201d Andrew Gaze said on commentary about Cheatham\u2019s dunk.<\/p>\n
With former star import Montrezl Harrell exiting the team last Thursday, the Sixers did their best to keep the highlight reels rolling.<\/p>\n
COTTON STARTS HOT<\/p>\n
It took him nearly half a quarter to register his first points but once he got on the board, there was no stopping for Cotton.<\/p>\n
The popular new Sixer scored 13 points in the next three minutes after getting his first bucket and finished the opening quarter with 15 points including 2\/2 three-pointers.<\/p>\n
Cotton\u2019s first bucket from just inside the three-point line was immediately followed by his first three-pointer 36 seconds later for back-to-back scores.<\/p>\n
BULLETS FIGHT<\/p>\n
Coming off a tough one-point loss to Cairns, the injury-riddled Bullets meant business in Adelaide after coming back from a nine-point deficit in the second quarter to lead just before half time. They also nearly made a comeback in the first quarter after being eight points down in an impressive start away from home.<\/p>\n
Prather and Harrison were the main drivers in the opening half, combining for 25 points at above 80 per cent accuracy.<\/p>\n
United dominant in throwdown 29 win | 00:53<\/p>\n
KINGS DEALT EARLY REALITY CHECK IN SHOCK LOSS<\/p>\n
The Kendric Davis-Matthew Dellavedova era in Sydney is off to a shaky start as Cairns caused a major boilover at the Kingdome.<\/p>\n
Expectations were high for the Kings with the addition of last year\u2019s MVP runner-up and NBA champion.<\/p>\n
But as they so often do, the Taipans proved the spoilers, overcoming a second-quarter slump to shock the Kings to the tune of 77-74.<\/p>\n
The two sides traded the lead back-and-forth throughout the second half, before Cairns opened up a six-point margin inside the final 30 seconds.<\/p>\n
A Kouat Noi triple got them back within range, before they had two chances to level the scores in the dying stages.<\/p>\n
But a lack of cohesion that typified their afternoon reared its head again, with a turnover and poor shot gifting the visitors the win in front of 8536 fans at Qudos Bank Arena.<\/p>\n
Jack McVeigh led all scorers with 24 points (9\/14 FG) to go along with nine rebounds and four assists as he stamped his class as one of the competition\u2019s premier players.<\/p>\n
It marks an impressive turnaround from the Taipans, overcoming a 37-point defeat in their season opener to record a weekend double.<\/p>\n
Deep issues<\/p>\n
Sydney\u2019s offence is still very much a work in progress, struggling early doors and failing to fire from three in the first half.<\/p>\n
They trailed by as much as nine after the Taipans got out to a hot start, and it wasn\u2019t until late in the second quarter they were able to hit a three, taking them to 1\/9 for the half.<\/p>\n
They eventually found their groove to take a five-point lead at the main break, however would only go on to shoot 4\/28 from three.<\/p>\n
Davis had 21 points on 27 shots with their half-court attack failing to test the Taipans.<\/p>\n
Taipans clinch game in Sunshine stoush | 01:26<\/p>\n
Challenge accepted<\/p>\n
Adam Forde could have a future in green once he\u2019s done with coaching, with the Taipans coach successfully overturned three calls in the first half<\/p>\n
The first was questionable with Marcus Lee appearing to contact the arm of Tim Soares on a steal attempt.<\/p>\n
There was no doubt about the next two, with Forde\u2019s decisions to roll the dice proving fruitful.<\/p>\n
Andrew responds<\/p>\n
After a lacklustre Cairns debut on Friday night, Andrew Andrews looked much better with an impressive 13 points and seven assists.<\/p>\n
That was until he went down with a severe cramp in his right quad, falling to the floor in front of the Kings bench early in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
Despite still looking ginger, he returned with four minutes to play with the game still in the balance, and hit a big three to give the Taipans the lead.<\/p>\n
Classy tribute<\/p>\n
The Sydney Kings paid their respects to the late Tiana Mangakahia following her tragic passing earlier this month.<\/p>\n
They wore a heart patch on their jerseys with her name and playing number, with a similar decal on the court in front of Sydney\u2019s bench.<\/p>\n
The former Flame and Opal was just 30 when she passed away due to breast cancer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adelaide 36ers fans have plenty to be excited about after a stunning debut from superstar Bryce Cotton who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-175792","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}