Wildcats not just a 'one-two punch'

Bryce Cotton and Keanu Pinder made spectacular starts to NBL25 as the Perth Wildcats won big at HoopsFest on Friday night, but coach John Rillie is just as pleased with the pieces around them who helped them fire.

A jam-packed RAC Arena and a raucous atmosphere greeted the Wildcats on Friday to open their NBL season and they rewarded their local fans with a superb performance on the way to the 106-98 victory.

The 'Cats did lead by as much as 21 points midway through the fourth quarter as well and a lot of that was on the back of what Cotton and Pinder provided.

Cotton was on fire in the first half on his way to 17 points, before finishing the night with 26, to go with four assists and four rebounds on 8/13 three-point shooting. He showed that a fifth MVP is well within reach.

Then there was Pinder who hit 4/8 from deep of his own, while making some spectacular plays at the rim with his explosiveness and power on show for 29 points, six rebounds and three steals.

While Rillie is happy with how that combination with his superstars is developing in what is their second season together, he also knows that it's the teammates around them helping them to thrive as well.

"That is progressing nicely and I think last year it took a little time for guys to figure out how to most utilise each other's strengths," Rillie said.

"Throughout pre-season the communication and connectivity has grown in those two guys, but the other additions we've made to our roster allows for that to happen with the floor spacing and so forth. It is a dynamic one-two punch though."

While there were starring performances from Pinder and Cotton who combined for the 12 three-pointers and 55 points, it was far from a two-man show.

What Rillie liked as much were the contributions from Dylan Windler (six points, 10 rebounds, four assists), Kristian Doolittle (nine points, 13 boards), Next Star Izan Almansa (10 points) and Ben Henshall (10 points, seven assists).

"Part of our messaging during the pre-season when we got this group together is that you just better be ready to do your job when your name gets called," Rillie said.

"Tonight there was good contributions from guys that didn’t play in the first half who came out in the second half and did a great job.

"It allows us at some stage to find a rhythm in the game and I thought in the third quarter, and early in the fourth we found a great rhythm within our team at both ends of the floor."

While the Wildcats offence flowed nicely and there was plenty for Rillie to like with the 19 made three-pointers, the 15 offensive rebounds, 17 points from turnovers and the 24 assists to just nine turnovers, he knows there won't always be nights like that.

That's where he is glad he has a core group of players he will back in to help ensure they win the possession game more often than not to give them chances to win.

"With Doolittle, Windler, Pinder, Hyrum Harris, Wagstaff, we have a core there who can keep us in games when things aren’t going so well," Rillie said.

"Trust me, this was a nice game for us but we're not going to play that fluid every night so we need to create more possessions.

"We did a good job of turning them over and finding offensive rebounds, and winning the possession game is important and offensive rebounding is a big part of that."

Cotton might already be a four-time MVP, three-time NBL championship winner and 231 games into his career at the Wildcats, but his motivation, passion and ability remain at peak levels.

He knocked down eight triples and while he enjoyed doing it in front of packed home crowd for HoopsFest, he gets up for any occasion and is especially happy with the continued growth of Pinder.

"It's not neutral to us and it was nice to hear the crowd again, it's been a minute," Cotton said.

"But I played with that same passion even when it was COVID and nobody was in the gym, it doesn't make a difference to me.

"Keanu played tremendous. I think with us having a year of experience learning how to play with each other, learning the different spots we like to be in, it's cool to see we had so many players who had spurts of kinda taking over the game.

"That shows the potential we have with the weapons and as long as we continue to utilise it, we can be great."

Following a hectic last couple of weeks with a tour to Japan followed directly by the NBL Blitz on the Gold Coast and Friday's season-opener, the Wildcats spend the week home, before hosting the Kings next Friday.

Rillie is already starting to play up the underdog tag and that's just with Sydney having owners Luc Longley and Andrew Bogut, Chris Pongrass as chief executive, and Brian Goorjian as coach.

"Next Friday night we play a team with two owners that have NBA championships, they've got a basketball general manager who keeps putting rosters together, they've got a coach they call the GOAT and I haven’t even talked about their roster," Rillie said.

"I've already told our assistant coaches let's figure out how we can win the jump ball so we can say we've won something that night."