Wildcats flex muscles late to overcome Snakes

Trust in their firepower has the Perth Wildcats poised to complete a winning run through Queensland after they dispatched the Cairns Taipans 89-78 with a commanding fourth quarter on Monday night.

Facing the arduous task of playing three games in five days on the road through Queensland, Perth coach Trevor Gleeson needs to be praised for his man-management. After blowing the Brisbane Bullets away in the final quarter on Saturday his charges did the same thing to the frustrated Taipans.

Needing to conserve energy, Perth spread the load across their roster in the first half which also allowed them to get 20 valuable minutes into the legs of new recruit Will Magnay.

After being humiliated by South East Melbourne on Friday, Nate Jawai and Scott Machado showed the way for the Taipans to bounce back emphatically to take it to the Wildcats, especially when stars like Bryce Cotton and John Mooney were on the pine.

At three quarter-time the scores were locked at 65-65 but the big guns of Perth blew the brave Taipans away in the end. Best of all, the Wildcats conserved energy with one more road game to come against the Bullets on Wednesday night.

Cotton was sublime in the final quarter and finished with 24 points and five assists while Mooney chimed in with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Todd Blanchfield had 11 points while Mitch Norton, ably supported by his Far North Queensland family in the stands, had 10 points and three assists.

It was a win that came as a relief for Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson.

"It was a tough game, we didn't play well in the first half. We haven't had a team play zone on us for an entire half, it was a bit different," Gleeson said.

"We are normally playing a high intensity, physical game so this was a little bit different to normal. I was happy with the second half, we were a little bit better in defence."

The win has ensured that Perth will play finals basketball for the 35th consecutive season but the fight for top spot remains firmly on the line.

"It is a great effort from our guys to get that with six games to go. For our squad to come together with a lot of change from last year, hats off to the guy for putting the team in front of their self-interests," Gleeson said.

"They have been playing pretty consistently all year so we are pretty happy to tick that box. We just want to get better. The draw, the ladder, that will work itself out. We will do our best to recover, recuperate and get ready for Brisbane."

While yet another loss will be a bitter pill to swallow for Cairns, they were vastly improved on Friday night and gave their fans something to cheer for. 

Local favourite Jawai continued his superb finish to the year with 20 points, nine boards and three blocks while import Machado had an improved 17 points, eight assists and five rebounds.

Fabijan Krslovic rounded out the scoring with 11 points and four rebounds while the other young guns toiled hard.

While the loss was disappointing, Cairns coach Mike Kelly was proud of the way his charges responded after Friday's heavy loss.

"I thought the guys competed the whole way through," he said.

"The other day we didn't do that well (on Friday), tonight I was happy with the effort."

Kelly said 14 turnovers including critical moments in the fourth ultimately sealed their fate.

"Perth got more comfortable with our zone as the game wore on," he said.

"We turned the ball over under defensive pressure, all game we turned it over and they ran over us in the fourth - it killed us."

Cairns opened with a zone defence to tried something new, but the Wildcats quickly dismantled it as they opened with more energy than the cellar dwellers. Jawai was a one-man army for Cairns as he stuffed in the first six points for his side. 

Machado joined the party with two critical long bombs that locked the scores up at 18 as the Taipans rallied to show this was going to be more than just a training run for the travelling Wildcats. When Krslovic splashed a three, Cairns suddenly had an unlikely lead.

Perth went into the first quarter leading 28-26, but they knew they were in a fight. 

They persisted with their strategy of sharing the load across the team and the Taipans took the match to them, putting pressure on players as soon as they entered the court and reaped the rewards when they took a four-point lead late in the quarter.

The reigning champions did enough to take a one-point lead into half-time, but you felt the momentum was with the Taipans and any further plans of resting stars might need to be shelved.

Gleeson didn't mince his words at the half, blaming a lack of intensity, mainly on the defensive end. He didn't muck around with his rotations either, pitching his big guns back into the fray for much of the third quarter - including Cotton.

Perth was looking for any advantage they could get but was penalised with a technical foul for repeated flops from captain Jesse Wagstaff and vice-captain Norton. Cotton, though, was electric as always with clutch plays that twice stole the lead back for his side.

When the dust settled both sides were again locked up at 65 setting up a thrilling final quarter.

Perth put their foot on the pedal, just like did in the final quarter against Brisbane on Saturday, and in the blink of an eye, Cairns were in an eight-point hole.

There was a brief resistance when Jawai got back-to-back buckets and Machado had the ball in hand, but Perth's defence was too good and soon the lead was in the double digits.

A three-point play from Jawai had the big man screaming to the heavens. A Cotton spin and three-point shot knocked the Taipans straight back to earth.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 18

CAIRNS TAIPANS 78 (Jawai 20, Machado 17, Krslovic 11)

PERTH WILDCATS 89 (Cotton 24, Mooney 11, Blanchfield 11) 

BOX SCORE