Wildcats' Momentum Building with Cairns Win

Momentum is building with the Perth Wildcats with a fourth straight NBL23 victory as they made it 10 straight over the Cairns Taipans winning 105-83 on the road on Tuesday night.

Both teams came into the contest at Cairns Convention Centre on three-game winning streaks with the Taipans fresh off a strong road win over the Tasmania JackJumpers while the Wildcats hadn’t played since snatching one from Melbourne United last Monday.

The Wildcats came out strongly with three-pointers early from Luke Travers, Brady Manek and Bryce Cotton. With TaShawn Thomas a dominant presence down low too, they opened up a 10-point quarter-time lead.

That got out to 18 by the start of the third quarter before the Taipans had their best patch of the evening scoring the next 14 points to make it a four-point ball game.

However, the Wildcats responded to still be up 14 by three quarter-time with that lead again out to as much as 23 in the fourth before Perth went on to win by 22 to make it four in-a-row this season.

The Wildcats have now won 10 straight against Cairns with the Taipans not able to beat the Wildcats still since Game 2 of the semi-final series of 2020 led by Scott Machado, DJ Newbill and Cam Oliver under current 'Cats assistant Mike Kelly.

While Cotton top-scored for Perth with 24 points on 5/9 three-point shooting, the help he received was crucial. Thomas was tremendous with 22 points, 12 rebounds and six assists. His work on the glass including seven offensive rebounds helped his team win the boards battle too.

Michael Harris put up a career-best 17 points with 3/5 from deep as well for the Wildcats with Travers contributing 14 points and four rebounds, and Brady Manek 11 points and five assists.

Wildcats coach John Rillie was pleased with plenty about the performance.

"We're slowly coming together as a team," Rillie said. 

"When we weren’t playing great, we didn’t have multiple contributors on a night and that's not just always in the points column. We're probably on this four-game stretch we're on right now with having great contributors. 

"Tonight is probably the deepest we've had in terms of contributors and what I talk about is the guy next to me (Thomas) had a hell of a game. 

"Bryce Cotton had another Bryce Cotton game, but then you've got Norton coming off the bench, Wagstaff showing a great defensive presence on the defensive end and you've got Michael Harris out there doing his thing at the offensive end. The game is rewarded when you play it the right way."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Thomas goes upstairs ?<br><br>?Catch the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> action live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel. <a href="https://t.co/AGZrDSanwi">pic.twitter.com/AGZrDSanwi</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1605124686337056769?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 20, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It was a tough loss for Cairns but it was their third game in seven days. DJ Hogg ended up top-scoring with 24 points, eight rebounds and three assists while hitting 4/11 from deep.

Tahjere McCall added 18 points, 10 rebounds and four assists while Bul Kuol contributed 11 points and three assists, Jonah Antonio 10 points, and Ben Ayre 10 points with three first quarter bombs.

Taipans coach Adam Forde lamented the defensive performance more than anything.

"It was pretty disappointing in the sense of our defence again in the first quarter," Forde said.

"There were some similar errors from what we had in Tassie. There was a lot of things and I look at the first quarter where Thomas really came out aggressive, and probably put Keanu on the back foot. 

"You add in five offensive rebounds, and I'm not trying to put Keanu on the spot, but a lot of them were as a result of him getting caught napping.

"They were converting on everything and I think they had 11 second chance points, and we had some costly turnovers and sloppy execution on the defensive end. 

"Suddenly we're in the changeroom at half-time and they've got 55 on us. That was pretty much the gist of it, not all five guys being in sync especially on defence."

Perth hadn’t played since last Monday and started strongly through Bryce Cotton and TaShawn Thomas before a Luke Travers three kept them on top. When Brady Manek and Cotton also hit from downtown, the 'Cats were on top 12-6.

Ben Ayre stepped in for Cairns with Shannon Scott injured and made an immediate impact with three three-pointers in a matter of minutes. The only problem was Perth kept scoring up the other end and by quarter-time after a five-point spark from development player Michael Harris, they were up 27-17.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Steal ?? Three<br><br>Catch the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> action live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel. <a href="https://t.co/nEwCMBYqxd">pic.twitter.com/nEwCMBYqxd</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1605138183939051520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 20, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Perth retained control throughout the second quarter as well with Thomas remaining perfect from the field before an and-one from Travers and then three ball in transition from Manek. He backed it up with a tough mid-range fadeaway.

The 'Cats turned that into an 8-0 run to lead by 16. As he's so often done this season, DJ Hogg attempted to will the Snakes back into the contest with nine of his 13 points coming late in the first half.

The Wildcats continued to have the answers, though, and two late bombs from Cotton took him to 13 points for the half, Thomas had 16 and they were up 50-44 including 11 second chance points and 15 from the 11 Cairns turnovers.

Perth opened up the second half with a three from Travers to go up 18 but then the Snakes found their bite. It began with buckets to Tahjere McCall and Keanu Pinder before back-to-back triples to Hogg leading to a John Rillie timeout.

Bul Kuol then drained another from beyond the arc to make it a four-point ball game to complete the stunning 14-0 run to bring the Orange Army to their feet.

The Wildcats had the answers, though, and it was again DP Harris who provided the spark. He knocked down another from downtown, Cotton soon did the same and when Mitch Norton and Harris added three balls heading towards three quarter-time, the margin was 15.

Jonah Antonio at least gave the Taipans some hope going into the fourth with a three to close the third period.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Bryce, that is very nice! ?<br><br>Catch the second half live on ESPN via Kayo Sports + Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/k7XcDdcdu0">pic.twitter.com/k7XcDdcdu0</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1605131827374874625?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 20, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Wildcats were back up 17 early in the fourth when Manek found Travers for another three-pointer before the lead got out to as much as 23 with Perth winning by 22.

The Taipans have one more before Christmas and that's on the road to Melbourne United on Friday. The Wildcats now get to enjoy Christmas before being back on the road to play the Brisbane Bullets next Tuesday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 11

CAIRNS TAIPANS 83 (Hogg 24, McCall 18, Kuol 11)

PERTH WILDCATS 105 (Cotton 24, Thomas 22, Harris 17) 

BOX SCORE