Kai Sotto ends Australian NBL campaign on a high note

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

Filipino basketball sensation Kai Sotto dominated in his last game for the Adelaide 36ers and finished with 12 points, four blocks, and seven rebounds to help his squad demolish the New Zealand Breakers, 93-60, in the 2021-2022 Australia National Basketball League (NBL) season.

Sotto continued his streak of stellar outings and followed his 16-point production by filling the stat sheet for Adelaide.

The leftie big man bullied his way underneath and scored in the paint every time he caught the leather for a post-up.

Aside from his offensive prowess, Sotto also played his main role as Adelaide’s primary defensive anchor and swatted away four New Zealand attempts underneath.

It was a slow start for Sotto in the Australian NBL after suffering a knee injury that kept him out for most of their early campaign.

The Filipino was then inserted into the Adelaide rotation after slowly getting his groove and immediately made an impact on the team.

Sotto helped Adelaide finish the season with a 10-18 win-loss record and were locked in at the eighth place at the end of the conference.

The towering center is yet to announce his next decision whether he will stay with Adelaide for one more season or enter the next NBA draft.

Before his international and Gilas Pilipinas stints, Sotto already expressed his desire to enter the draft and was a former member of the NBA G league team Ignite.

However, his plans with the NBA G League did not push through after his sudden decision to go home to the Philippines and become a part of Gilas’ young pool mentored by head coach Tab Baldwin.