Gladiator guard whips 'gassed' Snakes by the tail

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Phoenix star Nathan Sobey ($379,600) asked, “Are you not entertained?” and the Cairns Taipans said, “Nope.”

The 36-year-old veteran poured in 24 of his game-high 29 in the first half, when South East Melbourne needed it most, before blowing out the visitors in the third quarter for a runaway 115-83 win at John Cain Arena in Round 5 of NBL27 on Saturday, October 17, 2026.

“Sobes, he’s our leader,” Phoenix head coach Josh King said.

“He’s a really good player. He stepped up big for us tonight.

“He got dinged up the other night with a knee-on-knee or cork, and he did a really good job getting rehab. He really contributed majorly to our performance tonight.

“But again, if he wasn’t able to do it, we need somebody else to step up and do it.”

South East Melbourne moved to 3-5 (9th) while the Taipans dropped to 4-4 (8th).

Cairns kept it close in the first half, trailing 62-54 at the main break but were completely blown out in the third (27-9) as South East Melbourne turned its defensive volume up to 11 and effectively ended it. The Phoenix led by 41 with 2:15 left.

Taipans head coach Adam Forde admitted: “We ran out of gas. I said to the guys in the change room afterwards, I didn’t want them to beat themselves up too much on this.

Upon reflection, the last 32 days, I’ve given the guys four days off. We always do a travel, recovery, film day if we’re flying. We do game day, and every game day we do a shootaround, so I double-dipped there. And then we trained.

“We knew this was the toughest stretch, and there was a level of robustness that I wanted to build amongst the group.

“I think it was about 3:30 in the second. There was a loose ball, and we looked tired. We didn’t recover it. We just stood around, and it got kicked to Skylar Mays in the corner, and he drilled a three.

Then we come down, and my 35-year-old backup point guard has outrun everybody. We’re jogging.

“I rotated the bench through at that point and had the starters back on. We get into an early on-ball with Jonah Bolden. He gets a nice little finish at the rim. It’s a one-point game, and then we’re jogging again. A couple of minutes pass, and Brucey looks gassed.

I can sit here and say it’s frustrating again with the 27 offensive rebounds. That’s been an Achilles heel all season with us. But also, we’ve played more away games than anybody else.

“If I’m being realistic, internally as coaches we said we didn’t want Jaylin Galloway to come in and have to be our saviour. We kind of said we wanted to be four and four. Anything above that would have been fantastic.

“I don’t want to be too dismissive of the loss for what it is, but the boys are tired. They look tired. We played tired. We ran out of gas.

“When you’re trying to manufacture energy, sometimes it can be a bit of a falsehood. You’re trying to rev them up.

“Credit to South East. They kept themselves in the game with the hustle and effort plays, the offensive rebounds, the loose balls. We had no answer for that. Then they just took the wind completely out of our sails.”

Watch

NBL27

South East Melbourne Phoenix vs Cairns Taipans | Round 5 Highlights

Watch the highlights as South East Melbourne Phoenix take on the Cairns Taipans in Round 5 of NBL27 on October 17, 2026.

King adjusted his starting line-up after losing to the Bullets 115-105 earlier in the round. He brought import guard Skylar Mays ($277,000) off the bench and inserted NBL Next Star Dash Daniels ($115,000) and Angus Glover ($191,700) into the starting lineup for injured Tanner Krebs ($150,300).

“Go bring some energy and have some fun,” Phoenix guard Angus Glover said of the starting five.

“Obviously, I’m known for my offence, but it wasn’t about that for me. It was honestly just trying to bring some energy and some hustle to start.

“We didn’t start particularly well, but I feel like we were more connected out there. Obviously, the third quarter showed that.

“I just wanted to come out and bring energy, support everyone and just play how I would normally play.”

Glover finished with 14 points, four rebounds, four assists, and a steal, while Daniels had 10 points, four boards, two assists, and a steal in 23 minutes.

King was rewarded with production across the board, including Yannis Morin ($277,000)’s 11-point, 10-rebound double-double.

“The offence is one thing, but I think we had massive efforts and unbelievable performances from guys like Daniel Foster, Deshawn Schwartz and Yannis Morin,” King added.

“I thought they really anchored our defence and really got us kickstarted, and then the offence was able to flow from there.

“We’ve got guys who can score the ball, but we have to focus on getting stops, and that’ll make our team better.

“(Morin’s) double-double’s fine. I thought his defence was outstanding. Again, him, Daniel Foster and Deshawn Schwartz.

“I thought Schwartz did an unbelievable job on Jack McVeigh. John Brown, it’s a high, high compliment–but I watched John Brown play against Jack McVeigh last year, and I thought Deshawn Schwartz was our John Brown against Jack McVeigh in this game.

“Again, we had guys who played well offensively, which is really good, and we need that. I understand that we scored 115 points, but I was really proud, after the first quarter allowing 35, that we allowed 19 and then nine.

“I don’t know how many they scored towards the end, and I wish they didn’t score as many there, but I was really proud of our defensive effort after that first quarter.”

What you need to know

• The South East Melbourne Phoenix beat the Cairns Taipans 115-83 at John Cain Arena in Round 5 of NBL27 on Saturday, October 17, 2026.
• Cairns won the first quarter 35-27 and led by as many as 12, but the Phoenix won the last three quarters 35-19, 27-9 and 26-20 and were never headed after the scores were level at 47-47 in the second.
• Nathan Sobey ($379,600) top-scored with 29 points on 9-from-19, including 7-from-14 from three, and Jonah Bolden ($133,600) led Cairns with 17 off the bench on 7-from-10.
• The game turned in the third quarter, which the Phoenix won 27-9 to stretch an eight-point half-time lead to 26.
• The Phoenix made 14 threes to Cairns' eight, a 42-24 split from deep, and won the boards 59-34.

South East Melbourne Phoenix

• Nathan Sobey ($379,600) top-scored with 29 points, eight rebounds and six assists on 9-from-19, including 7-from-14 from three, in 26:34.
• Jordan Hunter ($224,800) had 19 points and 11 rebounds off the bench on 9-from-12 in 18:44.
• Angus Glover ($191,700) added 14 points and four assists on 5-from-13, with 3-from-3 at the line.
• Yannis Morin ($277,000) had 11 points, 10 rebounds and two steals on 5-from-8.
• Dash Daniels ($115,000) scored 10 points with four rebounds on 5-from-10.
• Skylar Mays ($277,000) scored 10 off the bench on 3-from-7, including 2-from-5 from three.
• D'Shawn Schwartz ($277,000) had eight points, five rebounds and four assists on 2-from-8.
• The Phoenix shot 44-from-91 from the field, 14-from-40 from three and 13-from-21 at the line, with 59 rebounds, 24 assists and 11 turnovers.

Cairns Taipans

• Jonah Bolden ($133,600) led Cairns with 17 points and five rebounds off the bench on 7-from-10, including 2-from-4 from three.
• Reyne Smith ($156,300) scored 14 on 5-from-11, including 4-from-9 from three.
• Keanu Pinder ($300,000) had 11 points, five rebounds and three assists on 5-from-10.
• Malique Lewis ($207,900) blocked five shots and added seven points and five rebounds on 3-from-5.
• Jaylon Brown ($277,000) scored eight on 4-from-12, including 0-from-4 from three.
• Jack McVeigh ($349,800) scored eight on 2-from-8, with 3-from-3 at the line and three turnovers.
• Shaun Bruce ($76,500) had five assists off the bench in 13:13, shooting 1-from-6.
• Cairns shot 34-from-74 from the field, 8-from-29 from three and 7-from-11 at the line, with 34 rebounds, 20 assists and 17 turnovers.