Wildcats shake off gritty Breakers in Perth

The monkey is off the back of the Perth Wildcats who shook off the New Zealand Breakers 98-84 at RAC Arena on Sunday night. 

The dogged, rebuilt Breakers tormented the Wildcats over the last month with two thrilling wins including an 83-78 victory in Perth last month.

New Zealand was the only side in #NBL21 that the Wildcats didn't have a winning record against prior to Sunday's game in front of a crowd of 10,518, but that has now been set straight and keeps Perth's chances of finishing the regular season atop the ladder alive.

It has been a brave season for the Kiwis but this loss has all but ended their chances of playing finals. Making matters worse, inspirational skipper Thomas Abercrombie limped from the court with a suspected hamstring injury in the final minutes when the game was already gone.

Import Levi Randolph was absent again for this clash but is understood to be a game-by-game proposition and might be in the mix for New Zealand's match against the Phoenix in Melbourne on Wednesday. Corey Webster is also on the injured list.

Bryce Cotton was dominant from the first whistle with 32 points, 10 assists and six rebounds for the Wildcats. John Mooney stuffed the stat sheet as well with 27 points, nine rebounds and four assists while Todd Blanchfield continued his big year with 18 points including five triples.

Perth coach Trevor Gleeson paid tribute to their old grand final adversaries for their courage over the course of the season.

"I just want to say what an outstanding job NZ has done. They have been in Australia all year, playing at home in Tassie and playing at that level," Gleeson said.

"With Corey out, with their import Randolph out, these guys are playing hard and I hope Abercrombie is OK. I have nothing but respect for how they have carried themselves this year. 

"We knew it was going to be tough, we have a long history with NZ, it doesn't matter where they are on the ladder they always come ready to play. I am happy our guys stood up."

Plenty of attention in the lead-up to the match was on former Brisbane Bullet Will Magnay who signed with the Wildcats this week after his stint with the Pelicans in the NBA. He suited up but did not take the court.

Gleeson said that Magnay should be ready to take the court in their match against Melbourne on Thursday.

"We decided not to play him, he hasn't had any traction with the team," he said.

"Physically he wanted to play but his body is not there yet. We will build him up this week and anticipate that he will play on Thursday."

Finn Delany (21 points, three assists) and Tai Webster (20 points, seven rebounds) paced the Breakers but having both of them foul out when the game was on the line in the final quarter ended any chance they had of another upset. 

Abercrombie had 12 points but also didn't finish the game.

It was Groundhog Day for Breakers coach Dan Shamir who conceded they were looking at losing Abercrombie for several games, the last thing they needed after an injury punctuated season.

"I think we have lost him, it didn't look good at all," he said.

"It is sad, but we will have to overcome this too. It looks like he has hurt his hamstring, we have to see what exactly that means but it doesn't look good."

Shamir did praise his side for staying in the fight as long as they did.

"We came in here a little short-handed, we survived for quite some time but we just didn't have what we needed for the last few minutes," he said.

"Hats off to Perth, they are a great team ... we gave it everything that we had but they were just better."

The early minutes had the game poised to be another hard-fought battle as Cotton and Abercombie exchanged three balls and mid-way through the term, it was all locked up at 12-all. 

Cotton was blazing away at a clip of 80 per cent and had 10 early points which posed a big problem for the travelling Breakers. When Mooney got firing it was the Wildcats who took the early ascendency and New Zealand called for the first time out.

The Wildcats lead surged to 10 and Cotton had 16 in the first quarter with the alarm bells ringing loudly for the Breakers before Delany bombed two late triples to bring his side back to 26-22 at the first break.

It was anyone's game in the second as the scoreline remained tight, the Breakers giving up too many second-chance points while the Wildcats were guilty of letting their opposition have too many free looks. 

New Zealand found the lead late in the quarter, but it was the Wildcats with a slender 51-49 lead at half-time of a highly-entertaining clash.

It was death by 1000 cuts in the third quarter for the Breakers as the 'Cats played the patience game. They chipped away, got their stops and it was Blanchfield who starred in this term as the home side pushed out to an eight-point lead. 

Perth's maturity and patience paid off as they ground down New Zealand over the third quarter and took a commanding 71-62 lead into the final term. When they piled on the first six points of the final quarter, it was close to game over for the Breakers.

The dogged Kiwis refused to go away, though, stroking back-to-back triples to cut the margin back to single figures to give themselves a chance down the stretch. 

Tai Webster fouling out immediately afterwards didn't help their cause, though. Delany following him to the bench was a hammer blow. Abercrombie limping off the court was the death knell.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 17

PERTH WILDCATS 98 (Cotton 32, Mooney 27, Blanchfield 18)

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 84 (Delany 21, T Webster 20, Abercrombie 12) 

BOX SCORE