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Jones shoots Wildcats to win in Perth

Jones shoots Wildcats to win in Perth

Sunday, September 14, 2025

New Perth Wildcats import Mason Jones hit seven three-pointers as his team beat the Ryukyu Golden Kings by 10 points in the International Series.

Mason Jones made a spectacular first appearance in Perth Wildcats colours with seven three-pointers as the 'Cats wrapped up their NBL pre-season beating Japan's Ryukyu Golden Kings 103-93 at Perth High Performance Centre.

It was the last game of the International Series not only featuring the Wildcats and Golden Kings, but also the South East Melbourne Phoenix and Sunrockers Shibuya.

A lot of the attention was on new Wildcats import Jones pulling on the red uniform for the first time. While he didn’t hit the floor until late in the first quarter, it didn’t take the G League Finals MVP and championship winner long to show why his signing was worth the wait.

Jones made three triples already by half-time and then made all three of his attempts early in the third quarter before finishing with 22 points, seven assists and five rebounds in 23:29 of court time.

While the Wildcats and Phoenix had combined to win the first three games against Japanese opponents in the International Series, Ryukyu were determined to not head home winless ahead of the start of the B-League season.

The Golden Kings started well to lead 27-21 by quarter-time on the back of nine offensive rebounds to zero to end up taking six more shots than Perth and getting to the foul line eight times to two.

The 'Cats responded with an 11-2 run to start the second quarter with the combination of Jones and Jo Lual-Acuil Jr already looking exciting in their first minutes on court together.

Perth ended up outscoring Ryukyu in the period 31-27 but it was the Golden Kings still clinging to the 54-52 lead by the half-time break even with the Wildcats having six offensive boards to three in the second stanza.

Jones then lit it up in the early minutes of the second half hitting all three of his attempts from long-range to give him six for the game, and on the back of that the Wildcats were able to work in front.

They could never quite shake the Golden Kings, though, until Jones landed the killer blow with his seventh three ball with just over two minutes to play and from there the Wildcats won by 10.

On top of what Jones did, Lual-Acuil Jr was superb with 16 points, five rebounds, four blocks and three assists with Elijah Pepper backing up his NBL1 West form from Warwick Senators with 15 points and three boards.

Dylan Windler added 12 points, eight rebounds, two assists and two steals, Ben Henshall 11 points and three assists, Dontae Russo-Nance nine points and two assists, and Kristian Doolittle eight points and seven rebounds.

Jack Cooley finished with 24 points and nine rebounds for the Golden Kings with Alex Kirk contributing 14 points and 10 boards, Masahiro Waki 13 points and three assists, and Ryuichi Kishimoto 13 points and three assists.

Former Wildcats and Brisbane Bullets NBL forward Vic Law also had 10 points, eight rebounds and five assists.

The Wildcats will now remain in Perth to open their NBL26 campaigns on Saturday night playing host to the Tasmania JackJumpers at RAC Arena.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL PRE-SEASON 2025/26

PERTH WILDCATS 103 (Jones 22, Lual-Acuil Jr 16, Pepper 15)

RYUKYU GOLDEN KINGS 93 (Cooley 24, Kirk 14, Waki 13, Rishimoto 13)

BOX SCORE