Wildcats pounce on Cotton’s absence to down 36ers
Chris Pike |
The Adelaide 36ers managed to keep things interesting even without Bryce Cotton in their ranks — but the Perth Wildcats ended up doing what they needed to close the NBL regular season with the 86-74 home win.
It was the very last game of the regular season in front of a crowd of 13,574 at Perth’s RAC Arena and with the Sixers’ second position already set in stone, five-time MVP Cotton didn’t suit up on his former home floor on Friday.
The Wildcats didn’t need to win to lock up fourth position and avoid a knockout play-in qualifier to open the finals in two weeks’ time against the Tasmania JackJumpers.
It then proved quite the rollercoaster ride with the Sixers scoring the game’s first nine points before Wildcats coach John Rillie inserted captain Jesse Wagstaff, who delivered 18 points and seven rebounds including his team’s first four points.
Then with Elijah Pepper hitting five threes and 17 points in the first half, the ‘Cats were in control 48-34 by halftime.
That lead got out to 19 in the third quarter but the Sixers fought back with a 12-2 run to close the term.
Adelaide got within three in the last quarter, but with Wagstaff inspirational in his 536th appearance, Perth did enough to hold on and win.
That means they finish in fourth place at 21-12 and will play the South East Melbourne Phoenix in a seeding qualifier with a chance to move straight into the play-offs.
Pepper ended up top-scoring for the Wildcats with 22 points with 6-of-10 three-point shooting with Jo Lual-Acuil Jr providing 21 points and six rebounds, with 13 of his points in the last quarter.
Wildcats coach John Rillie was pleased with the response from Sunday’s loss in Sydney.
“The important thing for us was to bounce back from our last performance and feel what winning was about,” he said.
“For a good period of time, we’d been playing play-off basketball for us to try and get into the top four.
“So to keep chipping away and the way we’ve handled it, I give credit to our guys for how they’ve handled themselves to allow us to get to fourth.”
The Wildcats won, even with quiet nights from Kristian Doolittle (five points, eight assists), Dylan Windler (zero points, six rebounds) and Ben Henshall (zero points, six boards).
Adelaide, already into the play-offs, finished second at 23-10, with their next outing being Sunday’s Ignite Cup final on the Gold Coast against the New Zealand Breakers.
Big man Nick Rakocevic provided 18 points, seven rebounds and two blocks, with Zylan Cheatham contributing 11 points and 11 boards, Flynn Cameron 10 points and seven assists, and Isaac White 10 points and six assists.
Sixers coach Mike Wells said: “Super proud of this group overall and thinking about post-season and the Ignite Cup now.
“We won the second half, we went on a 14-4 run in the middle of it, and I thought there was really a lot of great things.”
AAP