Wildcats send statement and end United winning streak

The two-time defending NBL champion Perth Wildcats have sent a reminder of what they are capable of putting an end to Melbourne United's 11-game winning run with a dominant 82-69 victory at John Cain Arena.

It was a top-of-the-table clash on Wednesday night to close Round 16 of the 2021 Hungry Jack's NBL Season with United attempting to stretch their hold on top spot and make it 12 consecutive wins.

They were on track to do that by quarter-time leading 19-12 but from then on the Wildcats dominated the contest in all areas and were remarkably well led by big man John Mooney.

He delivered 30 points, 14 rebounds, three assists and steals on shooting 12/18 from the floor and 4/5 from three-point territory.

The Wildcats outscored United 70 points to 50 over the last three quarters and would end up dominating the rebound battle with 43 to 35 including 16 offensive boards for 18 second chance points along with 22 points from the 18 turnovers they forced Melbourne into.

Neither team shot the ball well but it was in the effort areas that Perth got on top and as is so often the case with the Wildcats, when they win the possession game, they win the overall contest. They took 12 more shots and six more free-throws than United for the game.

Bryce Cotton's shooting woes might have continued with him going 5/17 from the field and 1/7 from deep for 16 points, but he dished out 10 assists to be a big factor in the game still.

Todd Blanchfield added nine points, Mitch Norton eight and Jesse Wagstaff six for Perth.

Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson was especially delighted that his second unit turned the tide their way in the second quarter and they kept it going from there.

"It was probably more important that we played the right way. I was happy that we played Wildcats basketball which is about sharing the basketball, having your mates back and playing all out," Gleeson said.

"It was really the second quarter when the second unit came on and lifted the tempo defensively, and got us off on the right note. Once we got that lead out to double-digits and it's good when you play the right way and you get the result you are after."

Jock Landale returned for Melbourne but battled foul trouble all night on his way to 11 points and four rebounds. Chris Goulding finished with 10 points, Yudai Baba 10, Jo Lual-Acuil eight and Sam McDaniel eight, but largely it was a last three quarters to forget for the home team.

United coach Dean Vickerman has been around long enough to know every losing streak ends, but he was disappointed in the manner that it happened.

"Generally we are going to be good enough defensively to put ourselves in a position to win and we still held them to 40 per cent shooting, and did some good things defensively," Vickerman said.

"But all the areas of the game that we talked about we couldn’t let happen, we allowed. We were really sloppy with the basketball and we gifted them a lot of points, and they capitalised on their offensive rebounding as well. 

"I look forward to watching back the 61 shots we had, which is about 15 down on what we're trying to achieve, and I'm sure at least 40 of those possessions we didn’t even start in the right spots. 

"We just got disrupted from the start and the biggest thing in the game was that we found no rhythm to our offence. We broke down too quickly and there was an IQ factor to that tonight, and we weren’t good enough in basketball reads."

Vickerman had seen enough after Wildcats buckets to John Mooney and Mitch Norton put the visitors up 8-7. 

He got the response he was after out of the timeout with United going on a 7-0 including a Chris Goulding triple before going on to lead 19-12 by quarter-time with a Yudai Baba buzzer-beating three as they held Perth to 6/20 shooting from the field and 0/4 from deep while keeping them off the foul line.

It was a different story in the second quarter with the 'Cats jumping out with a 9-0 run including a triple from Kevin White as they took the lead. 

While Jo Lual-Acuil and Jock Landale steadied Melbourne midway through the quarter scoring 13 straight points for their team, but Perth was warming to their task. 

After no free-throws in the first term, they got to the line nine times while scoring 34 points for the quarter and finishing it off with a 12-0 run. 

That saw the Wildcats lead 46-36 at the break on the back of 23 rebounds to 16 and 10 offensive boards to three.

Perth stretched that run to 16 straight points by hitting the first four of the second half too. They would then go on another 16-6 streak including triples to Bryce Cotton, Todd Blanchfield and John Mooney as the lead ballooned to 19.

Melbourne, though, closed the third quarter strongly to get back within 10 and then it was nine to start the fourth term after a Scotty Hopson free-throw. But they could get no closer and Mooney kept slamming the door shut on them as Perth went on to win by 13 in style.

Next up for Melbourne is the Throwdown with the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Saturday while the Wildcats are scheduled to host the New Zealand Breakers at RAC Arena on Sunday afternoon.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 16

MELBOURNE UNITED 69 (Landale 11, Goulding 10, Baba 10)

PERTH WILDCATS 82 (Mooney 30, Cotton 16, Blanchfield 9) 

BOX SCORE