Inside Pepper's miracle: 'I knew they'd call the foul'

For 300 games, Bryce Cotton has been the one breaking hearts at the death. On Thursday night, Elijah Pepper turned the tables, banking a miracle three while being fouled by Cotton to hand the Perth Wildcats victory over the Adelaide 36ers.

Cotton was back on his former home floor at RAC Arena celebrating his 300th NBL game. Not long before, he had made a huge triple to start an 8-0 run for the Sixers that put them in a winning position, up three with under 10 seconds left.

Pepper took it upon himself to take the ball up the floor for the Wildcats with Cotton defending him. What followed was something the six-time MVP has done so many times over his illustrious career.

Pepper drew the foul from Cotton while going up for the three-point shot and then just chucked it up, knowing he had three free throws to fall back on anyway.

He banked the shot in with 1.9 seconds left for the 'Cats to win 98-97, and when asked afterwards if it was the best shot he'd ever made, Pepper was in little doubt.

"Yeah, I don't think it's even close," he said, reflecting on perhaps the most significant moment of his NBL career.

His coach John Rillie was no stranger to big shots himself, including an historic 10 three-pointers when Trevor Gleeson was his coach. Thursday was the first time Rillie had gone head-to-head with Gleeson.

But Rillie wasn't going to let Pepper get too far ahead of himself and quickly brought him back down to earth.

"He needed to make it because he helped off of [John] Jenkins up the other end," Rillie said.

"So he needed to make something happen."

Looking back on the last possession, Pepper liked the idea of trying to get up the last shot with the game on the line, given he already had 22 points to his name by that stage.

He had Cotton guarding him, so he always thought he'd get off a good look, but time was running out faster than he expected; as soon as he felt his opponent reach in, he knew things had gone his way.

"It might have been the longest post-up of all-time for starters, but I just remember coming off and BC was able to turn me once and twice," Pepper said.

"I knew the clock was kinda running low and I had to get it up, and when I was sweeping through he kinda put his hands in there. I knew then if you go up with it they'll call the foul and I just happened to make it as well."