Teenage phenom Trentyn Flowers' fourth-quarter explosion has steered the Adelaide 36ers to a drought-breaking 89-80 NBL win over Illawarra at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.
The bottom-ranked Sixers were wallowing at 0-4 entering Saturday's match and trailed at every break before Flowers, projected to be a potential first-round pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, came of age and piloted his side to victory.
Flowers scored 23 points, including 18 in the final term during which the 36ers swamped the Hawks 35-20 to claim their first triumph of the season.
Import Trey Kell (25 points, nine rebounds) laid the earlier foundation which allowed Flowers to bloom late.
Sam Froling (21 points) led the charge for the Hawks, who needed more from their American guards Tyler Harvey (12 points at 33 per cent) and Justin Robinson (three points at seven per cent).
"They took the flow away from us and we weren't able to get cheap baskets," Hawks coach Jacob Jackomas said.
"We didn't get the win but there was some improvement from last game (thrashed by 30 points by Tasmania)."
Adelaide fell in an early ditch, trailing 20-8 as they chalked up more turnovers (six) than shot attempts (five).
Kell (13 first-quarter points), who traded buckets with Illawarra's ex-NBA forward Greg Clark (12), dug them out of the hole and his trey on the quarter-time bell reduced the Hawks' lead to 25-23.
Kell and Isaac Humphries continued their solid play in the second term to trim the deficit to 40-39 at halftime.
Behind Froling, Illawarra gradually began drawing away from the 36ers in the shadows of three-quarter time, but their upper hand was quickly brought undone by the Flowers show.
"That was amazing," Flowers said. "That's basketball - when you're going, you're going.
"My teammates were behind me the entire game."
The 18-year-old started the fourth term with a tip-in and a pair of threes.
He hit four from downtown for the quarter to single-handedly outscore the Hawks 18-10 over the first seven minutes of the quarter, hammering home resurgent Adelaide's advantage.
"At half-time I had a few choice words and did some stuff that the guys haven't seen me do," 36ers coach CJ Bruton said.
"All our games, we've been in it and our effort's been great."
