Wildcats get back to inflicting punishment on Hawks

It might have been on a neutral floor and there might be plenty of new faces at the Illawarra Hawks, but the Perth Wildcats just seem to love inflicting pain on them after another thumping 87-70 win on Sunday.

Most of the time it's done in front of their vocal Red Army back in Perth when the Wildcats are dishing out the punishment on the Hawks, but they did that in Melbourne at the NBL Cup on Sunday in their first meeting of #NBL21.

The Wildcats have had a great time dominating the Hawks on their home floor and there was even a period they won 25 straight games in Perth before Illawarra snapped that early in the 2016/17 season. 

But they haven’t won in six attempts since in Perth and over the past decade the Wildcats have also beaten Illawarra in two Grand Final series and another three semi-final battles.

Overall the 'Cats have now defeated the Hawks in 89 of the 127 clashes between the teams.

So most of the player personnel might have changed and the legendary Brian Goorjian is now in charge at the Hawks, but what didn’t change was the Wildcats dominating them from start to finish to romp to the 17-point win and return to the top of the NBL Cup.

The 'Cats raced out to an 8-2 start and were never headed. By half-time the lead had ballooned to 22 with Perth on fire shooting 53 per cent from the field while hitting 9/15 from deep with Todd Blanchfield, John Mooney and Jesse Wagstaff all scoring in double-figures.

The Hawks went at just 34 per cent from the field with 2/11 from three on top of 10 turnovers with Justinian Jessup and Justin Simon combining for three points and 1/10 shooting.

Little changed in the second half with Perth stifling Illawarra up one end and then doing as they pleased offensively with Bryce Cotton having an enjoyable time despite the much talked about defence expected by Simon.

Cotton still ended up with a game-high 18 points but he had tremendous support in an emphatic team performance that included 23 assists and just eight turnovers.

Blanchfield finished with 16 points in his first game for Perth against the Hawks while Mooney was superb again with 14 points, 10 rebounds and five assists on 6/8 shooting.

Captain Wagstaff ended up with 14 points, three rebounds and two assists while development player Corey Shervill chimed in with eight points.

Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson couldn’t have been happier with the response to Friday's loss to Brisbane.

"I was happy with how locked in the guys were and I really felt that from the last game when we were giving up easy points but today we were really good," Gleeson said.

"We were talking, communicating, getting down in the stance and playing some really good defence and that set the tone to start the game. That kind of carried in throughout the whole game."

Tyler Harvey had a good first half for the Hawks against the tide and ended up with 17 points but no other Hawk reached double-figures in a performance to raise concerns given they have four regular season games against Perth to go including two out west.

Hawks coach Brian Goorjian was just dumbfounded with the way his team played until he emptied bench late.

"I have to say that I'm expecting a lot during this process and take the highs and lows, and am staying on the high road with this, but I had no idea that that was going to take place tonight," Goorjian said. 

"I have tremendous respect for them and knew that after a loss in their last game they were going to come after us, but I was really excited about the opportunity to showcase the team and show them what we're about whether we win or lose with who we are and where we're going. 

"At half-time, I was dumbfounded and the cornerstones for us coming into the game were to go after Bryce on the on-balls, to keep them off the glass and to have the belly for the fight defensively. And then on the offensive end to push and move that ball and make them get back. But I got nothing for that. 

"The ball stuck in hands, everybody that caught it bounced it, everybody wanted to score and when they didn’t get shots they were frustrated. It's a really bad mindset there and the only positive I can take from it is that it was a 50-point beating and the score isn’t an indication of how badly we got beat.

"The young guys came in at the end and they gave it everything they had at the defensive end of the floor and then at the offensive end I thought the moved a little bit and so instead of losing by 50 we lost by 17."

Perth was coming off its first NBL Cup loss to Brisbane on Friday while Illawarra got back to winning against Adelaide on Thursday but it was the Wildcats who came out firing. Mitch Norton, John Mooney and Todd Blanchfield all hit early threes in a blistering 8-2, 11-4 and 17-8 start.

Jesse Wagstaff, Corey Shervill and Bryce Cotton then hit triples too with Cotton's turning into a four-point play with Perth up 28-17 after one.

Any chance of a Hawks fightback after six straight points was crushed when the Wildcats responded with a 16-3 run with Wagstaff, Blanchfield and Mooney all on fire.

That trio then helped the 'Cats close the half with the last six points as the lead was 53-31 at the main break.

Again after a brief flurry to start the second half from the Hawks, they just couldn’t stop Perth up the other end. Cotton got going with eight quick points as the lead grew to 27 and then they finished the quarter living at the free-throw line to be up 28 at three quarter-time.

It was largely junk time in the fourth quarter but the Hawks were at least able to outscore the Wildcats to claim their lone point from the seven on offer for the NBL Cup.

The Wildcats finish the NBL Cup against the New Zealand Breakers on Friday and Adelaide 36ers on Sunday while the Hawks take on the Sydney Kings on Thursday and Melbourne United on Saturday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 8
NBL CUP WEEK 3

PERTH WILDCATS 87 (Cotton 18, Blanchfield 16, Wagstaff 14, Mooney 14)

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 70 (Harvey 17, Simon 9, White 9) 

POINTS AWARDED – Perth Wildcats 6, Illawarra Hawks 1

BOX SCORE