The Adelaide 36ers remain in NBL finals contention after exacting sweet revenge on Melbourne United with an emphatic 100-81 victory in front of a record Adelaide Entertainment Centre crowd.
The eighth-ranked Sixers won every quarter against second-placed United in front of 9,588 fans on Saturday to pull off their largest win of the season.
Superstar imports Kendric Davis (28 points, 11 assists) and Montrezl Harrell (28 points, nine rebounds) played with plenty to prove after both received suspensions the last time these teams played.
"This team is continuing to evolve and this team's growing," Adelaide coach Mike Wells said.
"What you're seeing is a group that's had to go through a lot of adversity for a lot of different reasons and we've come out the other side of it now."
The 36ers have now won two straight after their season had gone into freefall following last October's acrimonious clash between these two teams at John Cain Arena, which United won by 27 points.
Harrell and Davis were banned for three and two games respectively for fighting with courtside spectators on that occasion, while Melbourne guard Shea Ili was fined $775 for pushing Harrell during an on-court scuffle moments earlier.
Chris Goulding top-scored for United with 18 points, while Ili had 14, despite being booed mercilessly by the parochial Adelaide crowd every time he touched the ball before fouling out early in the fourth quarter to rapturous applause.
The feeling on the court was apparent early, Harrell committing a hard foul on Ili, then stepping over the Melbourne guard, who shoved the American in return.
United scored the first five points and led 10-7 on Goulding's banked three, before the 36ers took control as Davis scored 10 straight points in a 12-0 Adelaide run.
Davis finished the quarter by going coast-to-coast with Ili on his hammer and completing a three-point play for a 27-17 Sixers lead.
Melbourne coughed up a whopping seven turnovers in the opening stanza as Harrell got off the leash to stretch the Sixers' advantage to 55-42 at half-time.
The margin would have been greater if it wasn't for Melbourne's dominant offensive rebounding.
Harrell fired up the crowd in the third period when he followed his rejection of Matthew Dellavedova with an intense staredown of the Boomers great.
Davis and Harrell continued to dominate down the stretch, never allowing United a sniff of a comeback.
"We didn't value the ball the way we wanted to and we got seriously punished for it any time we turned the ball over," Melbourne coach Dean Vickerman said.
"I thought we were trying to look for some home-run passes when we just needed to move it and be a bit more patient."
