Wildcats dig deep to win NBL thriller in Cairns
Chris Pike |
Jo Lual-Acuil Jr and Dylan Windler have combined for 56 points and the Perth Wildcats scored nine of the last 13 points to secure a nail-biting 80-77 NBL road win over the Cairns Taipans.
In a game full of momentum swings at the Cairns Convention Centre on Friday night, Lual-Acuil Jr and Windler proved the major difference.
The win improves the Wildcats to 3-1 with Lual-Acuil Jr getting to 30 points for just the third time in his 134-game NBL career. He finished with 30 points and 10 rebounds.
Windler continued his hot form with the left-handed American providing 26 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and two steals on 11-of-15 shooting.
Lual-Acuil Jr fired Perth to a 13-4 start but the Taipans responded well to level things up at 23-23 by quarter-time and the home team went up nine during the second period.
That was back to just a two-point lead at half-time before it was the Wildcats up by one at three quarter-time.
Windler put the ‘Cats up five early in the fourth quarter but Cairns answered and were back up by two when Reyne Smith scored with just over three minutes to play.
However, Lual-Acuil scored the next six points and then his put-back with 12 seconds to go ultimately sealed the three-point win even though Andrew Andrews put up a prayer at the death for the Snakes that almost went down to force overtime.
The other star for Perth was development player Jaron Rillie. The son of coach John was trusted once again with the ball in hands and played 21 minutes for six points, three rebounds and two assists.
The ‘Cats outscored the Taipans by 16 points in his minutes and he is now plus-62 in the first 41 minutes of his NBL career.
“From a defensive standpoint, we’re doing a really good job of keeping ourselves in games until we find a really good rhythm offensively,” coach Rillie said.
“While we’re figuring ourselves out at the offensive end, if we keep playing offence like that we’ll keep giving ourselves a chance, and in this league if you go on the road and get a win, that’s well done.”
The Snakes are now 2-3 following the loss ahead of facing undefeated Melbourne United on Sunday.
Andrews finished with 21 points and three assists for the Taipans. Admiral Schofield had 16 points and four rebounds, and Marcus Lee 12 points, 12 boards and three blocked shots.
Said Taipans coach Adam Forde: “The and-one blow bys are frustrating, the effort plays is frustrating and then the offensive side of things is frustrating,” he said.
“The numbers are telling and we’ve still got a lot of things we need to work on and we’re kind of limited that we’ve got two or three guys effectively looking to score, and we need to open up that playbook a little bit more.”
AAP
