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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 MELBOURNE TIGERS

CLIPSAL POWERHOUSE, OCTOBER 8, 1994

ADELAIDE turned in its gutsiest performance of the year and finest finals effort since its 1986 National Basketball League championship to stop titleholder Melbourne 101-88 at the Clipsal Powerhouse.

The 36ers cruelly were robbed of inspirational captain Mark Davis with a shoulder injury just two minutes into the second half.

But they lifted and rode out an emotional tidal wave that dumped and dazed the Tigers in its wash.

Victory ended a string of six consecutive Game 1 series wins by Melbourne and gave the Super Sixers a 1-0 semi-final lead going into the second match in Melbourne, just six days away.

The early prognosis was Davis would miss the rest of the season but he somehow made it back for the Grand Finals against North Melbourne Giants.

Davis, who had 13 points and a team high 10 rebounds in just over a half, wanted nothing more than to lead his team into the grand final with a 2-0 series sweep.

“When I had a look at this (Adelaide) team in the pre-season compared with the rest of the league, I felt if we put it together we had as good a chance as anyone of winning it,” said Davis, MVP of the Sixers' sole championship eight years earlier.

“Every year since 1986 that we haven't won it has been like a thorn in my heart. You don't get a lot of chances and this year is not about coming close.

“When the doctor was telling me (in the change-room) that I could be out for the rest of the season, I just said: 'I'm not going for that.'

“Whatever it takes man, I'm going to do it. I'll be out there and playing on Friday.”

Davis had endured a horrendous run of luck in finals. In 1993 he went into the quarter-final against South East Melbourne with a torn calf muscle.

In Adelaide's previous semi-final appearance in 1991 against Perth, he sprained his ankle between the first two games.

“I go through the whole regular season and everything is cool,” he said.

“Then the time when you most want to be out there, something like this happens. I don't believe it.”

Andrew Bogut hears you!

Davis had stolen the ball from Mark Bradtke under the Tigers' basket and had his right arm cocked for a long outlet pass when David Simmons crudely hammered him from behind on his release.

“When I brought my arm back down, I felt something out of joint,” Davis said.

“I felt like I'd broken it - I couldn't bring the arm up.

“Then I looked at my shoulder out of place and I never felt pain like that before.”

Davis was ushered into the changeroom by team medics, expecting the shoulder to be “popped back into place” so he could return to the fray.

“I thought you just pop it back in, shake it off and get back out there,” he said.

“When they said you won't be playing again tonight, I was fuming. I was more mad that I couldn't play.”

Davis had painkillers and watched the rest of the match on a television monitor. When it ended, he was compelled to return courtside to congratulate his teammates.

“They were incredible,” he said.

“It was one emotional game but that's the kind of stuff that will get it done for us.

“That's what it's all about - picking up your game and everybody rallying.

“Chris (Blakemore) went out of the game, too, but it doesn't matter who does what on the night, someone else has to pick it up.

“Considering what we had on the floor compared to what they had, I thought we played very, very smart basketball. And man, our defence ...”

When Davis tragically went out, the 36ers had no time to worry themselves.

Instead they beat the NBL's most emotional team at its own game - Mike McKay, Scott Ninnis, Robert Rose, Brett Maher and Brett Wheeler rising to cover Davis' loss and hustling for every loose ball before a roaring Clipsal Powerhouse crowd.

Phil Smyth, who had his body jarred by a thunderous Dave Simmons open court screen in the second half, returned to put down a string of free throws at the crunch, as did Maher.

McKay, playing with his heart and soul in his 300th NBL outing, made several huge plays but none bigger than the sixth foul he drew from Andrew Gaze with 5:12 left.

Free throw shooting, the 36ers' Achilles heel at times through the season, was instrumental down the stretch, as was the total defensive commitment which reduced the Tigers to a succession of errors.

Adelaide held Melbourne to 17 points in the second quarter and 17 again in the last, the Sixers smelling victory like a shark smells blood in the water.

A blinding and fiery second quarter had set the game alight, especially after Melbourne initially had advanced its first break lead of 34-31 to 39-33.

Consecutive baskets by Rose trimmed it to 37-39, then Davis intercepted a Melbourne pass, took the ball into offence and flicked a cross-court pass to an open McKay.

McKay's 3-pointer drained the bottom of the net and in less than a minute, Adelaide had seized a 40-39 edge.

The Sixers still had a one-point cushion with 4:10 to halftime when one of the half's biggest plays occurred.

Davis set a screen to release Rose for a jumpshot which he duly sank for a 46-43 lead.

But on the same play, Melbourne's Ray Gordon, unhappy at Davis' screen, retaliated and was hit with an intentional foul.

Davis buried both free throws for a 48-43 lead, then rubbed salt into the wound by icing a three-pointer on the intentional foul's resultant bonus possession.

The seven-point swing had the crowd roaring and just seconds later, fans were delirious when Rose drew a charging foul from Gaze, the fourth foul against the Australian captain.

Smyth's jumpshot gave the 36ers a 10-point buffer as tempers flared during an on-court Melbourne player huddle before a free throw which Davis decided to gate-crash.

It was that sort of game all night and resulted in one of the 36ers’ most memorable playoff wins.