Wildcats beat Bullets ahead of WA lockdown

The Brisbane Bullets battled hard but the Perth Wildcats did enough to emphatically bounce back with a 92-74 win on Friday night at RAC Arena just hours before a snap Western Australia lockdown came into effect.

The Wildcats were coming off a rare home loss back on Sunday to the New Zealand Breakers with the Bullets having also lost last up in Tasmania to the Breakers, but from the outset the 'Cats were in control of the contest.

Virtually from go to woe, Perth was on track for the bounce back victory and while they will feel they never really reached top gear along the way, they still recorded a strong 18-point victory.

The win improves the Wildcats to an 18-6 record on the season in what will now be their only appearance of NBL Round 15 while the Bullets slip to 10-13 to be further out of top four contention as they continue to struggle with some personnel issues.

Bryce Cotton remains in a fascinating run of form for the 'Cats. He's still being instrumental in them winning games of basketball, but at the same time his shot just isn’t falling even though he's making big plays when they matter the most.

The dual MVP again top-scored for Perth on Friday night with 21 points, six assists and four rebounds but he did shoot 5/15 from the field and 3/8 from three-point range. He was aggressive attacking the rim, though, drawing six fouls to go 8/9 at the foul line.

John Mooney was another dominant force on the inside for the 'Cats as clearly the best big man in the game with 16 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists, two steals and two blocks while shooting 7/12.

Jesse Wagstaff added 12 points and six rebounds for the Wildcats, Mitch Norton 11 points, six rebounds and five assists, and development player Luke Travers eight points and two boards.

Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson was happy with the start and then had mixed emotions about how the rest of the game unfolded.

"I thought our first quarter defence and application to what we do to the game plan was great. We came out of the blocks really well in the first quarter and our defence was good, rebounding was great," Gleeson said.

"Then we got in that lapse period where we got up and were comfortable, and really didn’t get out of our comfort zone. Brisbane are a good side and they kept fighting back, and it kind of happened like that in the second half as well. 

"We need to get better at playing that 40 minutes of basketball and that's what we need to build up if we want to go far towards the end of the year."

Similar to Cotton, Lamar Patterson ended up putting up decent looking numbers for Brisbane with 19 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and two steals. But he did shoot an inefficient 6/18 from the floor to get there despite drawing four fouls and going 6/7 at the charity stripe.

Harry Froling was perhaps Brisbane's best offensive threat on the evening with the Wildcats not having a good match up for him. He ended up with 20 points and three rebounds on 8/14 shooting.

Nathan Sobey added 14 points, seven rebounds and five assists for the Bullets, and Anthony Drmic 11 points, three rebounds and three assists.

But only getting a combined six points on 2/16 shooting between Matt Hodgson, Jason Cadee, Tanner Krebs and Tyler Harrison meant getting a rare win out west was always going to be a challenge.

The snap three-down lockdown because of COVID-19 has meant that the Sunday fixtures for both teams won't eventuate. 

The Wildcats were scheduled to face the Taipans in Cairns but the South East Melbourne Phoenix will now take their place while the Bullets' home clash against the Phoenix has been postponed.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 15

PERTH WILDCATS 92 (Cotton 21, Mooney 16, Wagstaff 12)

BRISBANE BULLETS 74 (Froling 20, Patterson 19, Sobey 14) 

BOX SCORE