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WAYBACK Wednesday was a weekly feature I wrote last season for Adelaide 36ers website, which now you can revisit, see for the first time or completely ignore!

ADELAIDE 36ERS V CAIRNS TAIPANS

CAIRNS CONVENTION CENTRE, JANUARY 26, 2008

WHEN only three players in your rotation have scored and you are more than two-thirds of the way through a 48-minute game of NBL basketball, the expectation is not that your team will be the winner.

But that’s the way it often is with Adelaide.

Just when you think you can count out the 36ers, they produce something a little unbelievable.

So it was at Cairns Convention Centre when they overcame the odds – and the Taipans – 111-105 in what would turn out to be Phil Smyth’s last season at the helm.

Adelaide’s season had been chequered at best.

It lost its key off-season signing, Brad Newley, to a lucrative contract in Greece before a shot was even fired.

Club superstar Brett Maher struggled to play 18 games in the 30-match season.

Fellow backcourt running-mate Brad Davidson also had injury issues.

But worse, injured import Mike Chappell was released too late by a reluctant management as its team made a desperate rush at the playoffs.

The “first coming” of Julius Hodge, who replaced Chappell, helped turn the program around in short order.

Coming into the thin end of the regular season’s final third, the Sixers had little margin for error.

Beat the Taipans in Cairns and the heart of their NBL play-off hopes would keep beating, albeit erratically.

Lose and the club could formally turn its thinking to the 2008-09 season - you know, who to keep, who to trial, who to lose, from players through to coaches through to admin staff.

After all, if success is a community effort, so too is failure.

The enigmatic 36ers - who beat leader Sydney by 22, then lost three games straight including a club record 48-point humiliation by Brisbane - looked a very competent outfit while losing 108-113 to Melbourne before the Cairns clash.

“That was our fourth game in eight days,'' Smyth said.

“I thought we showed character to outscore them in the last quarter.”

They did too, Hodge going off for 13 of his 27 points, Davidson, Axel Dench, Neil Mottram and Adam Ballinger all lifting.

Down Maher (calf) and with Lanard Copeland suspended for “adopting a threatening attitude”, the 36ers further were hamstrung when Darren Ng - who was electrifying with a 21-point first half - was hobbled by cramps after the break.

The excitement had started early though when Smyth introduced Jordan Dodman as the first man off his bench.

Dodman stood toe-to-toe with Chris Anstey, the NBL's premier big man.

And lost.

But it didn't matter because the rookie had a go and even managed to trouble the 2006-08 league MVP.

“We were real happy with him,” Smyth said.

“Anstey took him down to the block and made a couple of big moves on him but Jordy didn't do any worse than anyone else in that situation defending Chris, and gave as good as he got at the other end.”'

Dodman was expected to see some time on the Taipans' eventual Rookie of the Year and man-child monster Nathan Jawai.

But David Cooper ended up with that assignment and did it with aplomb.

The equation could not have been any simpler for Adelaide.

It was win, or any playoff talk was over.

Fini.

Done.

Kaput.

The 36ers’ 3-9 road record was hardly encouraging, with the three wins coming over West Sydney, Singapore and South, three of the four teams below Adelaide.

A week earlier on the road, it lost to Wollongong, the only other side below it.

Down Maher, the 36ers got a break when Cairns also lost a key player, Darnell Mee to injury.

Taipans coach Alan Black – the same man who as Wildcats coach presided over the 36ers’ huge come-from-behind finals win in Perth five years earlier – still suited a formidable outfit.

Stephen Black, Gary Boodnikoff, Martin Cattalini, Larry Abney and Jawai were all at the height of their games.

With that backdrop, the game got underway with Hodge, Ballinger and Ng on fire.

No. REALLY on fire.

By the end of the six-point win, Hodge would have 39 points, Ballinger 36 and Ng 24.

Everyone else had 12.

In total.

And Dench had six of those.

Only Hodge, Ballinger and Ng scored for Adelaide across the game's first 32 minutes and 20 seconds.

That's the longest a team has gone with just three scorers.

Then Dench joined in.

“The thing about that though is it's not as if no-one else could score,” Smyth said.

“It was that they had the hot hands so we kept getting them the ball.

“Certain guys had certain assignments. For example, Cooper's role was to keep Jawai from being a big influence.

“Brad (Davidson) had (Stephen) Black and he finished with 10 points on 2-of-7 shooting.”

Hodge could not be stopped, even sticking his first NBL triple.

“He got his points from everywhere, inside-outside, a bit of everything,” Smyth said.

He also had 10 rebounds, five assists and three steals.

Ballinger had 10 boards with his 36 points, two assists and a block.

Ng’s 24 points included just three triples.

Cooper grabbed 11 rebounds and Davidson dished a game-high seven assists as Adelaide kept its season alive.

Abney had 24 points for the Taipans and their other import Jared Newson scored 23.

The win took the 36ers’ win-loss tally to 11-15 to keep them in sight of the playoffs.

But that was as good as it got, their eventual 14-16 record one win short of post-season action.