Wildcats go two-for-two against NBL1 West Select

Photo: Halim Mellick

The Perth Wildcats have survived a scare in their second pre-season clash with the NBL1 West Select Team, emerging as 13-point winners in the second meeting of the two sides.

Sunday’s clash followed on from Perth’s high-scoring 18-point win over the same opposition on Friday night and it was the West Select Team who surged to a four-point quarter time lead.

The brilliance of new import Jordan Usher and Next Star Alexandre Sarr helped the Wildcats pile on the points in the second quarter, with the team outscoring their opponents by ten in the decisive second stanza, to head into the main break on the right side of a six-point buffer.

While Perth never looked truly troubled by West Select in the second half, it took until the final minutes of the fourth quarter for the Wildcats to properly shake off their opposition.

Following on from his solid performance on Friday night, Overtime Elite graduate Sarr starred for Perth with 13 points, nine boards and a pair of blocks.

Captain Jesse Wagstaff managed to shake off an apparent hand issue suffered in Friday’s game to start Sunday’s clash, while development player Michael Harris shot the lights out with a game-high 23 points.

Five players hit double-digit scoring for NBL1 West Select. Rowan Mackenzie led the way with 12, while Malik Meunier, Johnny Narkle, Ethan Elliott and Tevin Jackson all scored 11.

Meunier also ended the game with four steals.

The pair of wins has seen the new-look Wildcats open their NBL24 pre-season with a perfect record, and they will now travel to Las Vegas to play the NBA G-League Ignite prior to returning to Australia for the NBL Blitz.

Perth Wildcats 99 (Harris 23, Usher 16, Cotton 14, Sarr 13) 
NBL1 West Select 86 (Mackenzie 12, Elliott 11, Narkle 11, Jackson 11, Meunier 11)