Cotton too much as Wildcats overcome Sixers

Bryce Cotton threatened to score 50 points but had to settle for a season-high 36 as his Perth Wildcats overcame a dogged yet undermanned Adelaide 36ers 92-82 at RAC Arena on Monday night.

Cotton had 23 of his 36 in the first half as the 36ers could find no answers for his drives and outside shots before he was slowed in the second half with other Wildcats like Mitch Norton (13 points) and John Mooney (11 points, 14 rebounds) to make sure of the win.

Daniel Johnson led the Sixers with 19 points and eight rebounds while Tony Crocker had 13 points, Jack McVeigh scored 12 and Daniel Dillon finished with 11 points.

Much of the success of the Wildcats under Trevor Gleeson has been based on offensive rebounds, crashing the glass and winning the possession game more often than not. That was clearly a difference between the two teams on Monday.

The 'Cats collected 23 offensive rebounds for 24 second chance points. The Sixers had just five on the offensive glass for seven points. Perth had 44 rebounds to 26 overall, and as a result took 17 extra shots than the 36ers and got to the foul line 19 more times.

Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson said Cotton continued to star in the NBL.

"I don’t want to sound ungrateful but you just get used to it, don’t you?" Gleeson said.

"He performs at such a high level every time he steps on the court, he raises everyone’s performance out on the court and he’s a joy to watch when he gets going."

Gleeson added he wasn’t happy with his side’s defence but was happy with the rebounding dominance.

"It wasn’t our best performance, Johnson was getting a hot hand and he scored four or five times in a row," Gleeson said.

"We have to have that group intelligence on court about how we stop hot guys during a period in time and that’s part of our growth as a team."

Sixers coach Connor Henry said his side’s effort was commendable considering how ‘battered and bruised’ the side was at present but also praised Cotton for his performance.

"We competed really hard, that’s something that isn’t written about enough," Henry said.

"We hang in and hang in but get worn down. We give up 23 offensive rebounds and 24 second chance points so that is a lot of possessions to make up so we have to get healthy and continue to give our best effort every time we get out to play."

A big job was always ahead of the 36ers with them coming off an overtime loss in Melbourne on Saturday to the South East Melbourne Phoenix where Josh Giddey suffered an ankle injury for him to join centre Isaac Humphries on the sidelines.

Awaiting them in Perth was a Wildcats team fresh off coming back from 26 points down to beat them last Sunday and who had won the NBL Cup and comfortably beat the Cairns Taipans on Friday in front of the Red Army.

Alex Mudronja was promoted to the starting five while new import Brandon Paul again came off the bench for Adelaide, but the Sixers started promisingly enough with early threes from Jack McVeigh and Tony Crocker.

Bryce Cotton burned from the outset with 11 points on the board in the opening term although the Sixers had contributions from a number of players including Daniel Dillon to have scores tied at 24-24 at quarter-time.

Not even Crocker's chase down block on Cotton stripped the championship winner of his confidence as he continued to accumulate points while captain Jesse Wagstaff nailed his 400th three-pointer for the Wildcats.

Cotton went into half-time with 23 points as his side held a 51-45 lead. Some of his heroics and shot making was just dazzling to watch, and quite frankly unstoppable.

The Wildcats broke out to a 10-point lead early in the third but again the Sixers fought back as Johnson came into his own.

With Cotton under closer defensive coverage, his scoring slowed but the Wildcats still led 72-65 going into the final term.

The Sixers struggled to slow the Wildcats in the final term, especially after foul trouble kicked in along with coach Connor Henry and Crocker both receiving technical fouls.

Cotton happily took the extra free throws while his teammates pushed out their margin to claim a comfortable win.

The Wildcats remain at home to host the Illawarra Hawks on Friday while the 36ers have a break before taking on the Taipans in Cairns on Sunday.

Henry said Giddey was unlikely to make the trip to Cairns this Sunday but scans on his ankle injury had positive results and he would know more about Giddey’s return at the weekend.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 10

PERTH WILDCATS 92 (Cotton 36, Norton 13, Mooney 11)

ADELAIDE 36ERS 82 (Johnson 19, Crocker 13, McVeigh 12) 

BOX SCORE