Gleeson owns Cotton minutes as 36ers go "backwards"

When Trevor Gleeson took the reins at the Adelaide 36ers, he promised a team that wouldn't lean on Bryce Cotton to win games.

So after watching Cotton play all but seven seconds of Thursday night's loss to the Perth Wildcats, Gleeson made no attempt to hide his disappointment.

"I I really thought we went a backwards step today," he said.

"I was really disappointed how we kept reverting to Bryce and not moving the ball and running our offense. It was all like he must touch the ball. And you can't win that way. Well, my experience is you can't win that way."

Adelaide weathered an early Perth surge and appeared to have control of the game, but a 13-point lead was cut to seven in the final two minutes of the third quarter as Gleeson tried to rest players for the fourth.

The veteran coach said he tried to keep Cotton on the court too long when the game was in the balance.

"I had a couple of guys checked in to sub him out and then he hit a three or get fouled. I said, 'Oh, yeah. Okay', I tried to ride the momentum. So, that's my fault. That's totally on me. He played too many minutes. That's a stupid mistake to himself.

"Bryce is a very good player and he can bail a lot of teams out, but to to play as a team, we didn't do that today and that's what we got to fix."

The five-time championship coach can be forgiven for sticking with his marquee man. Cotton finished with 37 points, 9 assists and 4 steals in an incredible individual performance.

But Gleeson said that reliance on one player isn't the way to win.

"I don't think we played at the level we played last week. It was disappointing to take a step back. Competitive, yes, but we didn't play long enough," he said.

"We've got some bad habits that we've got to iron out. And it doesn't matter who's playing out there.

"We've got to we got to be stronger together as a team. I I didn't think our team play was good enough."

>> Pepper the hero with game winning prayer

All five 36ers starters finished in double figures, and Adelaide led by three with eight seconds remaining before an Elijah Pepper miracle buzzer-beater proved the difference between the teams.

It was also an emotional return for Gleeson, who received a standing ovation from the Red Army in his first game back in Perth since leaving for the Toronto Raptors.

"I got nothing but love," he said.

With Flynn Cameron (ankle), Isaac Humphries (knee) and Bul Kuol (ACL) all sidelined, there's plenty of reason for optimism in Adelaide once the 36ers are back at full strength.

But for now, they're left to ponder what could have been.