Wagstaff: Perth fightback no ‘moral victory’

Sydney hit its first 10 shots, Kendric Davis didn’t miss in the first quarter, and for a long stretch on Wednesday night the Perth Wildcats looked out of the contest.

Down 16 at quarter-time and 25 late in the second, Perth was in enough trouble that the commentary team wondered aloud whether John Rillie already had one eye on Saturday’s clash with the Illawarra Hawks.

Instead, the Wildcats kept coming. Brandon Knight, Dylan Windler and Elijah Pepper found their range, and with seven minutes left in the last quarter the Kings’ lead was down to four.

Sydney steadied to win 99-91, and the slow start left Rillie plenty to fix, but there was a lot to like in how his side responded.

“They [Sydney] played really well in the first 20 minutes of the game,” Rillie said.

“We weren’t probably disruptive, pesky enough. KD gets some good early looks, gets his mojo going. Torrey Craig’s playing at a high level, but then you got [Makuach] Maluach and then Tyler Robertson comes off… they’re a good team for a reason.”

Davis had 16 points on 7/7 shooting in the first quarter, while Maluach had 14 points on 4/4 from deep by half-time.

Jesse Wagstaff said the Kings’ shooting left Perth chasing from the start.

“When a team shoots, what, 88% or something from the three in the first quarter, it’s tough to arrest the momentum,” he said.

“It’s no good for a moral victory, but I think we had our chances, right, late.”

Rillie said the early damage shaped the rest of the night.

“What he [Davis] established for them early probably leads to some of the stuff you saw in the second quarter,” he said.

“So that’s why it’s really important you can take care of business as the game flows, so you’re not trying to arrest it on the fly. And we were just on the fly too much tonight, trying to chip back from 25 down.”

With bottom-placed Illawarra visiting on Saturday night, Rillie said the focus is squarely on Perth’s start.

“Anytime you start a game slow, it’s tough. So we’ll talk and review a lot about how we start the game and how we come out,” he said.

“They’ll certainly have our full attention, but it’ll be more about how do we come out and apply ourselves at the early stage of the game.”

Knight led the fightback with 27 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists in just his fourth game.

“He’s really adjusting to the League, to our team,” Rillie said. “You can see the benefits of having him on the floor.”

Wagstaff said Knight’s influence goes beyond the box score.

“I love what he brings on the court and I love what he brings off the court,” he said.

“His maturity and who he is as a person, I think, is just as important. There’s not too many guys that can come in and take almost a game-winning charge last week and then hit a game-winning [shot].”