Wildcats Make Finals in Incredible Finish

It took until the very last second of the NBL23 regular season but the Perth Wildcats have secured their return to the NBL finals beating the Sydney Kings at home 96-84 and break the hearts of Melbourne United in the process.

The situation was all set up for a dramatic finish to the regular season. Perth's loss at RAC Arena to the Cairns Taipans on Friday night meant things got decidedly interesting for sixth position.

After Melbourne United's 116-107 win over the Adelaide 36ers to start Sunday at John Cain Arena, the equation for the 'Cats was to beat Sydney by at least 11 points and they were in, and Melbourne missed out.

The Kings had top spot locked away no matter the result and were without point guard Derrick Walton Jr, but welcomed back MVP candidate Xavier Cooks, and weren’t interested in handing the Wildcats anything.

Despite a rough night for three-time MVP Bryce Cotton who had just nine points on 2/20 shooting, the Wildcats were on track to get that winning margin comfortably when leading by 23 in the fourth largely thanks to the efforts of Luke Travers (22 points, 11 rebounds, six assists with 4/9 three-point shooting), Brady Manek (21 points, nine boards) and Corey Webster (26 points, six rebounds, five assists on 11/17 shooting).

The Kings weren’t going away though. The reigning champs went on an 18-3 run with a DJ Vasiljevic three-pointer bringing it back to an eight-point game. Webster and Manek combined to put Perth back up 12, but Vasiljevic had two good looks at the three in the dying seconds.

It couldn’t win the game for the Kings, but it could knock the Wildcats out of the finals and put United in. He missed both, though, with the 'Cats winning by 12 to finish sixth at 15-13. 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">LUKE TRAVERS! ?<br><br>? Watch live on 10Peach, ESPN, via Kayo &amp; Foxtel <a href="https://t.co/InhW4U8MHu">pic.twitter.com/InhW4U8MHu</a></p>&mdash; Perth Wildcats (@PerthWildcats) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerthWildcats/status/1622127671286333440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

United also finished at 15-13 with Perth's percentage 100.47 and Melbourne's 100.41. It was two points that decided that sixth position and a spot against the South East Melbourne Phoenix in the play-in game. 

Wildcats coach John Rillie deliberately didn't want his players to know what they needed to win by and put faith in them to get the job done.

"I'm going to say our bandwagon will be pretty full right now," Rillie said. 

"When we were 5-7 and lost five in-a-row, it was only a room full of guys who believed so that's what I'm most proud of about this team. It came down to the wire and we made it, so let's go and win it. 

"We never talked about needing to win by a certain margin. We played the game to win it and if we played the right way, good shit will happen for us. We did not talk about the points spread at all."

Vasiljevic top-scored for Sydney with 18 points and seven rebounds with Xavier Cooks contributing 15 points in 28 minutes. 

Angus Glover added nine points and seven rebounds, Jackson Makoi eight points, Jaylin Galloway seven points and three rebounds, and Justin Simon seven points and six boards.

Kings coach Chase Buford felt it was simple in the end and missed free-throws, missed shots and missing Walton was key to the result.

"It was a wild finish there at the end," Buford said.

"It was a game where we really looked like we missed our point guard with the amount of missed passes and turnovers we had. We had a lot of guys open and just couldn’t find the right way to get it to them with so many deflected passes that led to turnovers. 

"Basically the difference on the scoreboard is the difference with points off turnovers. We obviously missed Derrick a lot and we'll learn from that, get better and the missed free-throws missed us as well. 

"We couldn’t make a shot outside the key all night but we scored 60 in the paint and did a lot of good things attacking the basket. We just couldn’t make threes, couldn’t make free-throws and couldn’t make the passes when we needed to."

The stage was set for the Wildcats to win their way into the finals with an 11-plus point win but there was never a chance the Kings would be handing them anything. Even though Bryce Cotton helped Perth to a 5-2 lead, the Kings hit the next five points, and soon were leading by six.

The Kings were still on top 21-16 by quarter-time while hitting 50 per cent of field goal attempts even though the Wildcats did a better job on the glass with eight offensive rebounds.

Luke Travers then tied scores up with the first five points of the second period for the 'Cats but again Sydney responded with a 9-3 run to regain a six-point advantage.

The runs continued with the Wildcats scoring the next seven points capped off by a Brady Manek three ball. Travers then added another triple to tied scores up before another long-range bomb from Manek helped Perth to a 40-36 lead at the break.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Angus Glover pulling out some tricks! <br><br>? ESPN, 10Play, 10Peach<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeTheKings?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WeTheKings</a> <a href="https://t.co/xdCxnxwHtt">pic.twitter.com/xdCxnxwHtt</a></p>&mdash; Sydney Kings (@SydneyKings) <a href="https://twitter.com/SydneyKings/status/1622126911907307522?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Despite just the seven points and 1/11 shooting for Cotton, the Wildcats did well to lead at the break on the back of 11 offensive rebounds despite shooting 29 per cent as a team and 5/20 from beyond the arc.

The Kings did shoot 41 per cent but had nine turnovers and took eight fewer field goals for the half.

Manek set the tone for the third quarter with an early three ball for Perth before Travers and Wagstaff also landed bombs from downtown with the lead getting out to nine.

The 'Cats then got back-to-back three balls from Corey Webster and Travers to see that lead grow to 14 before still leading by 12 at three quarter-time, which if it remained would be enough to get into sixth position even with Cotton shooting 1/14.

Perth then dominated the opening stages of the fourth quarter going on a 16-7 run and when Manek knocked down another three and Travers threw down a dunk, they were leading by 21.

Manek delivered another dunk to make it 23 soon after but the Kings wouldn't go away even after Cooks checked out for the game. Justin Simon inspired their fightback and Sydney went on a 13-2 run.

That included a dagger three from Angus Glover and suddenly the margin was back to 12 and Perth was only one-point in front of where they needed to be.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Brady Manek slams it down! ?<br><br>? Watch live on 10Peach, ESPN, via Kayo &amp; Foxtel <a href="https://t.co/QsXoetfxAB">pic.twitter.com/QsXoetfxAB</a></p>&mdash; Perth Wildcats (@PerthWildcats) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerthWildcats/status/1622127987947900928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Vasiljevic is a man built for the big moment and he delighted in hitting a three to bring the margin back to eight with 50 seconds to go, but Corey Webster put Perth back up 10, and then Manek hit two free-throws to make it a 12-point ball game.

Vasiljevic took a three with Perth and Melbourne's season in his hands, it didn’t fall but Sydney still had possession with 4.4 seconds on the clock.

The Kings had broken the hearts of opponents earlier this season, and Bruce found Vasiljevic for a good look at the three, but it wouldn’t go and Perth won by 12 to finish sixth and knock out Melbourne.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 18

PERTH WILDCATS 96 (C Webster 24, Travers 22, Manek 21)

SYDNEY KINGS 84 (Vasiljevic 18, Cooks 15, Glover 9) 

BOX SCORE