Kings beat Wildcats to continue ladder rise

Kings centre Jordan Hunter has once again starred for Sudney, this time in a 99-86 defeat of Perth Wildcats.

Pushing for a third straight title, the Kings shook off a slow start at home on Sunday and never trailed after quarter-time.

They are now 4-1 in Mahmoud Abdelfattah's first season as coach, while the Wildcats have dropped three of their past four games to sit at 2-3.

While Sydney struggled shooting the three ball going 7-of-40 for the game, they dominated the glass with 58 rebounds to just 39 from the Wildcats, including 19 at the offensive end for 25 second chance points.

Combined with getting to the foul line 30 times for the games and the Kings more than found a way to make up for a rough outside shooting game in a statement performance.

Hunter came within one rebound of clinching his first double-double since resuming starting centre duties this season, finishing with 20 points and nine rebounds.

He and import guard Denzel Valentine orchestrated an 11-3 run to finish the first half that opened up a handy eight-point lead for the Kings.

An ally-oop from Valentine's three-point attempt was a particularly memorable moment for the big man in this game-defining period.

Perth tore away to a 21-9 lead early on but bench guard Angus Glover iced a three that pulled the Kings level and completed a 12-0 scoring run.

Superstar guard Bryce Cotton threatened to explode with 11 first-quarter points including a three-pointer inside 20 seconds.

But the Kings did well to curb his influence after the first change by sending the size of Hunter and Kouat Noi his way.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Jordi Hunter is raising the roof ?<br><br>Watch live and FREE on Kayo Freebies / 10 Peach &amp; 10 Play ? <a href="https://t.co/fwDviI9zee">pic.twitter.com/fwDviI9zee</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1713439614877552766?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 15, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The three-time NBL MVP, who averages more points against the Kings than any other team, was scoreless between the eighth minute of the first quarter and the midpoint of the third.

The Wildcats found themselves in foul trouble early in the third quarter, inviting the Kings to extend their lead by fouling four times in the opening two minutes.

Next Star Alex Toohey hit two back-to-back three-pointers from the corner of the arc in the third quarter that pushed the lead to a game-high 15 points and force a time-out.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I feel like a triple, or twoooooo ?<br><br>Toohey with the B2B triples ?‍?<br><br>Watch on Kayo Freebies / 10 Peach &amp; 10 Play<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LetItReign?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#LetItReign</a> <a href="https://t.co/avjCeyhGLS">pic.twitter.com/avjCeyhGLS</a></p>&mdash; Sydney Kings (@SydneyKings) <a href="https://twitter.com/SydneyKings/status/1713440235613560984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 15, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Cotton came back into the match late to finish with a game-high 22 points but by that point, the Kings' lead was too sizeable to be threatened.

Tai Webster fouled out late to cap an afternoon to forget for the Wildcats.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 3

SYDNEY KINGS 99 (Hunter 20, Adams 18, Bolden 13) 
PERTH WILDCATS 86 (Cotton 22, Pinder 9, C Webster 8)

BOX SCORE