Wildcats attack in numbers, shred Phoenix

Bryce Cotton couldn’t have done much more for his Perth Wildcats to start the NBL season but he needed help and he got that in spades as the Perth punished the South Melbourne Phoenix en route to a 106-75 win on Thursday.

It was the third meeting already of the season between the Phoenix and Wildcats when they resumed hostilities at the State Basketball Centre on Thursday night with South East Melbourne having notched their first win against Perth on the road going back a couple of weeks.

But the Wildcats had beaten them convincingly the four times previous to that and normal hostilities resumed this time around with the 'Cats dominant from start to finish holding the Phoenix to just 27 first half points to lead by as much as 33 and win by 31.

It had been an intriguing first two meetings of #NBL21 in Perth, though, with a fourth-quarter Cotton-led explosion (20-3 in the closing stages) propelling the Wildcats to an 88-74 victory on January 24. 

Five days later, the Phoenix prevailed (90-89) in the rematch, which saw Jesse Wagstaff miss a last-second layup that still boggles the mind. 

If the other games were defined by back-and-forth action, this match was horribly one-sided. Clearly, a significant part of Simon Mitchell’s game-plan was to limit the impact of Cotton, the reigning MVP of the league. 

With just two points in the first quarter, Phoenix were succeeding on that front – yet crucially, the Wildcats still held a 20-16 lead. 

When Wagstaff (12 points, 5/8 shooting) made a layup at the beginning of the second quarter, the advantage was suddenly out to nine. From there, the Wildcats didn’t look back – and did so with a dazzling team display. 

Only Todd Blanchfield had double figures at the half (10, on his way to 22 points), but the Wildcats had stretched the lead out to 21 at the main break. 

Cotton played the part of a willing decoy, allowing the Phoenix defence to come to him before deferring to his teammates. It was a winning formula. He had 15 points and seven assists in the 106-75 victory. 

New import John Mooney certainly made a case for man of the match honours. The Notre Dame alum had 18 points and 13 rebounds, and was superb on defence. 

For the Phoenix, Kyle Adnam was productive with a game-high 24 points. Mitch Creek worked hard, but his shots didn’t fall (16 points, 7/18 from the field) and will have better days this season. 

Coach Trevor Gleeson, whose 231-game mark tonight eclipsed Alan Black as the most in Perth Wildcats team history, was certainly proud of this performance. 

"The defence has been pretty good the last two games against United and tonight and that really set the tone for us," he said.

"I was pretty pleased with our defensive intensity out there. It was playing the right way, it was no secret. We pass the ball to the open man. We’re cutting, we’re passing, we’re moving the ball and that showed up on the scoreboard."

Perth looked anything but a team that had lost back to back losses (most recently going down 75-71 to Melbourne United), and were more like the defending champions they are. 

Despite now being without Damian Martin, Terrico White, Nick Kay and Miles Plumlee from that title winning team, they are still a team to be reckoned when at their best.  

On the other hand, it was a truly disheartening performance for the Phoenix whose last three showings had been strong ones with the win in Perth, tight loss to Melbourne and giving the Hawks their first defeat.

South East Melbourne coach Simon Mitchell was frustrated in the performance especially just days after playing so well to beat Illawarra.

"I thought we were timid. I thought we were physically ill-equipped to handle the pressure that they provided and that's on both sides of the ball," he said.

"You try to throw different line-ups out there and we didn't have any answers. Credit to Trevor. He's the best in the business and that's why he wins championships.

"I think first and foremost, we can talk about it as a coaching staff until we are blue in the face... but it has to be a buy-in by everyone to secure the ball. It felt like each and every possession there was one guy looking to take a break.

"We know we have these guys again and they're going to line up and try to beat us in the mouth again. It needs to a physical stand... we need to show we're not going down like that."

The Phoenix will have to do some soul searching before the two teams meet again on Valentine’s Day Sunday at the same venue.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 5

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 75 (Adnam 24, Moore 18, Creek 16)

PERTH WILDCATS 106 (Blanchfield 22, Mooney 18, Cotton 15) 

BOX SCORE