Harrison and Prather spark Bullets to win over Wildcats
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Casey Prather and Tyrell Harrison have combined for 61 points and 25 rebounds as the Brisbane Bullets silenced their critics with a brilliant performance on the road in the Ignite Cup to beat the Perth Wildcats 110-93.
The Bullets arrived at RAC Arena in Perth on Wednesday still missing key pair Sam McDaniel and Mitch Norton while having already parted ways with import Javon Freeman-Liberty, and they’d lost four straight, culminating in a 27-point loss to the Illawarra Hawks.
In contrast, the Wildcats were back on their home floor having won three straight and with their defence holding them in good stead, but the Bullets came out firing, Prather leading the way with his 34-point display.
Brisbane had found themselves down 20 early on Saturday against Illawarra, but things were very different on Wednesday night as they raced into an 11-2 lead.
The Bullets turned that into a 56-48 half-time lead, with Prather and Harrison combining for 27 points and 10 rebounds between them. As a team, Brisbane shot 7-of-13 from downtown to the 4-of-16 from Perth in the opening half.
Brisbane stayed in control too with Harrison scoring another seven third-quarter points for them to be leading by nine at three quarter-time, and they converted that to the 17-point win to improve to 2-4.
The Bullets ended up shooting 54 per cent from the field with 46 from deep opposed to the 46 and 29 from the Wildcats while winning the rebound count by 13 with 15 offensive boards to nine.
Former MVP Jaylen Adams didn’t start for Brisbane and didn’t attempt a shot in his 17 minutes despite having six assists with Harrison (27 points, 15 rebounds, four assists) and Prather (34 points, 10 boards, three assists) dominant.
Young trio Tristan Devers (15 points, three rebounds, three assists), Alex Ducas (14 points, four steals) and Taine Murray (12 points) all played crucial roles in the win.
“It was a great win and I’m just really happy for the players, the staff and the organisation because we’re really confident with what we’re doing day to day,” Bullets coach Stu Lash said.
“Perth’s not an easy place to win games so we’ll enjoy this one tonight and it’s a short turnaround to Friday night against United.”
The Wildcats are now 3-2 with the positive being the form of import guard Mason Jones. He had his best game of the season with 19 points before fouling out with five minutes to play.
Jo Lual-Acuil Jr also had 18 points for Perth to go with three rebounds, three blocks, three steals and two assists.
“That was a disappointing display of basketball,” said the dismayed Wildcats coach John Rillie.
“We knew they would come in motivated and we certainly didn’t match that, and that’s why they got the win.”
AAP
