Wildcats beat Breakers after wild NBL final quarter
Chris Pike |
Perth have hit back with 17 straight points after conceding a 15-0 run to open the fourth quarter to score their first win of the NBL season, 89-78 against the New Zealand Breakers.
The home side had all the momentum at Spark Arena on Saturday with the opening 15 points of the final period but the Wildcats responded in kind with the next 17.
It was then development player, and son of coach John Rillie, Jaron, who iced the game with the first five points of his NBL career.
“It was one of those moments for me where am I the coach or the father, and what you trust and don’t trust in the moment,” senior Rillie said.
“But most importantly his teammates trusted him and you saw that with how they closed the game.
“This is the first time I’ve dealt with that emotion to it all and he probably won’t want to talk to me anyway so that’s alright.”
Both teams were looking for their first victories of the campaign after the Breakers lost at home to the Brisbane Bullets and away to Melbourne United, while the Wildcats lost on their court to the Tasmania JackJumpers.
Ben Henshall hit eight quick points after coming off the bench to help Perth to a 25-17 advantage by quarter-time and then Jo Lual-Acuil Jr had 14 first-half points for a 44-42 lead at the main break.
Next Star Karim Lopez kept New Zealand close with his team’s only two three-pointers and 14 points but the ‘Cats were still on top most of the third term, leading by as much as nine.
It was the start of the fourth where the Breakers blew the game open thanks to a pair of three-point bombs to returning local Izayah Le’afa.
It took Perth more than three minutes to score but once they did they were almost unstoppable, sealing an 11-point victory.
The Wildcats only shot 6-of-35 from three-point range but two of those six came in the last minute with former Melbourne United centre Lual-Acuil Jr ending up with game-high 21 points, eight rebounds and four blocks.
Dylan Windler added 20 points and 15 boards and Kristian Doolittle 16 points, six rebounds and three assists, while fellow import Mason Jones struggled with two points on 0-of-8 shooting.
New Zealand are now 0-3 to start the season despite Parker Jackson-Cartwright finishing with 18 points and five assists.
Lopez ended up with 16 points and seven rebounds with Le’afa adding 14 points, three assists and three steals with 4-of-7 shooting from deep.
“Having 20 offensive rebounds against a team like Perth is too much but the effort there was much better,” Breakers coach Petteri Koponen said.
“Now we just need to get much better at executing things under pressure and to win those small margins.”
AAP
