Perth Wins Big in Blanch's 350th

The Perth Wildcats spoiled the homecoming of the Cairns Taipans by dominating after quarter-time in Far North Queensland on the way to an eventual 105-76 win to celebrate game 350 of Todd Blanchfield.

The 'Cats arrived at Cairns Convention Centre to close Round 2 of NBL23 minus key pair TaShawn Thomas and Corey Webster in the battle of undefeated teams, but from quarter-time onwards the visitors lit it up.

Blanchfield started the night on fire with four triples in the first quarter in the closest venue to his old home. 

He might have now found a home in Perth but he started his career in Townsville and still returns home to play NBL1 North at Rockhampton including during 2022, and he enjoyed being back in the Far North on Monday night.

He wasn’t the only Wildcat to enjoy the surroundings either with Brady Manek stepping up without Thomas to produce his best NBL performance while Bryce Cotton and Jesse Wagstaff were outstanding as Perth turned a one-point quarter-time deficit into a 23-point half-time lead.

The 'Cats turned that into a 29-point win on the back of going 50 per cent from the field and hitting 18/38 from three-point land while holding the Snakes to 38 per cent overall and 9/41 from deep.

Blanchfield celebrated his 350-game milestone by hitting 5/8 from three-point land for 17 points with Cotton adding 24 points, seven rebounds and three assists.

Another man close to being back home, Norton, finished with 16 points and nine assists with Manek adding 14 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals, and captain Wagstaff 12 points, four rebounds and three assists on 4/6 shooting from the land of plenty.

Wildcats coach John Rillie was delighted with those in his team stepped up and for Blanchfield to deliver in his milestone game.

"Everyone stepped up and statistically we had a lot of contributors across the board," Rillie said.

"We really didn’t mention the milestone at all but just from my experience, when players have milestones they naturally want to play well and I thought his (Blanchfield's) teammates did a great job of getting him the ball early. He capitalised by making the shots."

It was a rough first loss of the season for the Taipans on the back of wins on the road against the Tasmania JackJumpers and South East Melbourne Phoenix. The Snakes had 18 turnovers for the night to go with the shooting woes.

Keanu Pinder battled hard once more for 18 points and 15 rebounds with Sam Waardenburg impressive with 14 points and three boards. DJ Hogg added 12 points, five rebounds and two steals.

Taipans coach Adam Forde will be looking for his team to learn plenty from the loss.

This is part of the learning curve for this group because there were things that really rattled our cage so it's about how we respond to that," Forde said.

"It's really important that the guys learn and evolve from this because we can't just shoot ourselves out of it. It has to be done at the defensive end and it has to be done by relying on cuts off the ball, executing the stuff. 

"We made a lot of simple errors which obviously snowballed into bigger errors, and then you get a result like that second quarter. A loss is only a loss if you don’t learn from it, and I think there was a lot to take out of this game."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Oh my... that is ?????? ?????????? from the <a href="https://twitter.com/PerthWildcats?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PerthWildcats</a> ? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> <br><br>Tune into the action live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel <a href="https://t.co/24D4npXkVc">pic.twitter.com/24D4npXkVc</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1579407859556941824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Looking to step up in the absence of TaShawn Thomas, Brady Manek drained a three to open the game for Perth but it soon became the Todd Blanchfield show in his 350th game back in his home state.

He had already knocked down three triples in the opening five minutes with Cairns only staying in touch courtesy of a three-point bomb and and-one play from Sam Waardenburg.

Perth still led 16-8 after a trademark four-point play from Bryce Cotton before Blanchfield knocked down a fourth three, but Cairns finished strongly with triples from Bul Kuol and Jonah Antonio to head into quarter-time up 24-23.

The 'Cats soon took over in the second period, though, beginning with three-point bombs to Mitch Norton and development player Michael Harris. 

Captain Jesse Wagstaff knocked down a pair of long-range bombs before Cotton converted another four-point play, hit another three ball and Blanchfield soon nailed his fifth of the half. Perth went on a 10-0 run to suddenly lead by 19 and Cotton pushed that out to 26 just before half-time. 

The Wildcats were up 60-37 at the break on the back of a combined 32 points from Blanchfield and Cotton while they shot 53 per cent from the field opposed to 38, hit 12/24 from downtown to 5/20 and scored 13 points off the 11 Cairns turnovers.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">&quot;That&#39;s Bryce Cotton at his absolute best&quot; - <a href="https://twitter.com/Liam_Santa?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Liam_Santa</a> knows what&#39;s up ?<br><br>Step-back, and-one. You also know what&#39;s up ?<br><br>Catch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel <a href="https://t.co/GABmTbmM2q">pic.twitter.com/GABmTbmM2q</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1579393681194627073?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Snakes opened the second half on fire with the opening nine points with five of those from Keanu Pinder, but they couldn’t keep it going. Wagstaff steadied Perth with two more long balls as part of a 12-2 run as the lead was back out to 24.

That lead was out to 25 by three quarter-time and it got to 30 early in the fourth term after a triple to Norton and another bucket from Blanchfield before they went on to win by 29 and remain unbeaten.

The Taipans are back on the road to take on the defending champion Sydney Kings on Friday night while later that evening the Wildcats are at home to Melbourne United.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 2

CAIRNS TAIPANS 76 (Pinder 18, Waardenburg 14, Hogg 12)

PERTH WILDCATS 105 (Cotton 24, Blanchfield 17, Norton 16) 

BOX SCORE