{"id":481770,"date":"2026-02-15T14:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T14:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/481770\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T14:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T14:54:10","slug":"not-even-close-sixers-coach-declares-cotton-mvp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/481770\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Not even close’: Sixers coach declares Cotton MVP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adelaide 36ers coach Mike Wells has declared the NBL<\/a>‘s MVP race is over after legendary guard Bryce Cotton spearheaded a remarkable comeback win over New Zealand.<\/p>\n

The Sixers faced double-figure deficits in all four quarters at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Saturday and were down by 14 points early in the final period.<\/p>\n

But Cotton put his team on his back as he peeled off a game-high 42 points in a 92-89 victory that confirmed Adelaide’s top-three seeding for the finals.<\/p>\n

Bryce Cotton is favourite to win the NBL’s MVP award.\u00a0Mark Brake\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The American-born guard has been locked in a two-way battle for MVP honours with Sydney’s Kendric Davis this season, but Wells insists Cotton is destined for a sixth Andrew Gaze Trophy.<\/p>\n

“If it’s not over tonight, then tell me what the definition (of MVP) is,” Wells said.<\/p>\n

“He played 40 minutes, scored 42 points, guarded the other team’s best player — did everything.<\/p>\n

Bryce Cotton is favourite to win the NBL’s MVP award.\u00a0Mark Brake\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

“Most Valuable Player to his team. This thing is over.<\/p>\n

“If you’re not voting for Bryce Cotton, who’s been the best player in this league since the day he got here, I want to know why.<\/p>\n

“I want to see the votes. It’s not even close. The MVP race is over today.”<\/p>\n

Cotton could only laugh when asked to respond to Wells’ assessment of the MVP race.<\/p>\n

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“I’m not going to say he’s wrong,” Cotton said.<\/p>\n

Adelaide trailed by 18 points before halftime but found a way out of the hole, and have now reclaimed first place from Sydney with a 23-9 record.<\/p>\n

They face Cotton’s former team Perth in a blockbuster finish to the regular season as the title contenders clamour for finals seedings.<\/p>\n

“Over 32 games we’ve showed the grit and the determination to figure out how to win,” Wells said.<\/p>\n

“Maybe it wasn’t exactly how we wanted it to be (against New Zealand) … but we outscored them 33-18 in the fourth.<\/p>\n

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“We got to the spots that we needed to and there were times when Bryce just put us on his back, and that’s what the best player in the league does.<\/p>\n

“He carried us and he led us on both ends of the floor.<\/p>\n

“His leadership in the time-outs, on the court, what he was saying to the group was better than his scoring on offence.”<\/p>\n

New Zealand, missing three injured members of their starting five, made a hot start behind Parker Jackson-Cartwright (25 points, seven assists) and got plenty from Izaiah Brockington (19 points).<\/p>\n

But Breakers coach Petteri Koponen lamented key errors late in the game and conceded they had no answer to Cotton.<\/p>\n

“We fouled jump-shooters multiple times, but at the same time you have to give credit to greatness when you see it,” Koponen said.<\/p>\n

“Bryce took over in the last quarter. It’s not the first time – last game against us also he hit the game-winner.<\/p>\n

“We were not getting stops, so it also affected our offence, but credit to Adelaide, they are a great basketball team and Bryce is a hell of a player.”<\/p>\n

Dejan Vasiljevic drained 19 points in a crucial contribution for Adelaide, and Zylan Cheatham produced an important double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds, as well as eight assists.<\/p>\n

Adelaide and New Zealand meet again in the inaugural Ignite Cup final, to be played on the Gold Coast on February 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adelaide 36ers coach Mike Wells has declared the NBL‘s MVP race is over after legendary guard Bryce Cotton…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-481770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481770","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=481770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}