Harris praises "champ" Usher

Perth forward Hyrum Harris has praised the influence of Jordan Usher on the Wildcats’ double-win weekend, saying the import took his omission from the starting five “like a champ”.

Harris was moved into Perth’s starting group at the expense of Usher for the Wildcats’ clash with the Adelaide 36ers on Saturday. Perth emerged as 11-point winners to end its four-game losing run, and Usher impressed with 17 points, while Harris scored nine points and grabbed six rebounds – five offensive – in the win.

“I didn’t have a conversation with Ush, but he took it like a champ,” Harris said. “He came off the bench in that first game and brought a massive spark for us, and in that second game in Melbourne he showed what he can do in that fourth quarter – especially that last shot.

“He was huge and a big momentum swinger that took us to overtime and we won the game based off that shot.

“Ush is a professional athlete, he’s not going to shy away from trials and he did exactly what we needed him to do to come away with two victories.”

The Wildcats were under immense external pressure in the midst of their four-game losing streak, but their pair of victories have elevated them into the top six and relieved some of the pressure on head coach John Rillie.

The Red Army vocally booed the Wildcats’ efforts when they entered a timeout on the wrong side of a 17-3 deficit against the Bullets in Round 5, but Harris said his side was focused on controlling the controllables throughout their difficult run.

“We try out best not to pay too much attention to the outside noise, we focus on everyone in the circle and everyone in the huddle, we can’t control what happens on the outside, we can only control what we do individually and as a team,” he said.

“It’s not too much of a thing for us, we’ve spoken about how we just have to worry about ourselves and do what we do as a team, ride the highs and ride the lows.

“Everyone’s going to win, everyone’s going to lose, it’s just how you deal with it.

“The coaches do a good job in putting faith in their players, and they put their faith in me to go out there and do what I do, not to overdo it or underdo it, just to go out there and do the things I’m good at.”

Perth plays Cairns on Friday, November 10 at 9:30pm AEDT, live on ESPN via Kayo.