Kai Sotto watched from the sidelines as the Adelaide 36ers squandered a 10-point lead late in the fourth quarter en route to a 77-72 loss to Brisbane Bullet in the 2021-22 NBL season at Nissan Arena on Friday, Feb 22.
Sotto finished with just six points, five rebounds, and one steal before he was pulled out of the game with 6:45 left to play in the final frame.
The Filipino wunderkind, who only played for 15 minutes in the game, never returned despite Adelaide trying to endure a Bullets comeback attempt powered by a quick 6-0 spurt that cut the lead down to just four, 67-63, with a little over four minutes left in the clock.
A Sunday Dech triple stopped the bleeding for Adelaide but the Bullets unleashed another back-breaking 10-0 blast capped by a Lamar Patterson dunk to reclaim the lead, 73-70, with 1:38 remaining in the game.
Adelaide tried to regain foothold behind the efforts of Dech but was not enough as the Bullets kept the 36ers at bay in the dying seconds.
Patterson led the way for Brisbane with 32 points, six assists and four rebounds while Robert Franks added 15 points and five boards.
The shorthanded 36ers, which only had 10 players in uniform for the game, was paced by Daniel Johnson with 15 points and 12 rebounds.
Adelaide which fell to a 4-7 win-loss record, will get the chance to bounce back against Cairns Taipans on Feb. 20 at home.