Wildcats Overcome Breakers with Flying Finish

The Perth Wildcats delivered a flying finish to mark their return home with a hard earned win against the second placed New Zealand Breakers, ending with an 11-4 run to secure Tuesday night's 93-90 victory.

The Wildcats were back home for their first game at RAC Arena since that miraculous comeback win over Melbourne United on December 12, and they were on song early with TaShawn Thomas and Brady Manek setting the tone.

Thomas and Manek helped Perth to hold a lead for most of the first half combining for 19 points and 11 rebounds. 

Even though rebounding had been a struggle for the 'Cats this season, they had 14 second chance points on nine o-boards to half-time which saw them lead despite the Breakers shooting 50 per cent and Dererk Pardon's 14 points and six rebounds.

Pardon and Thomas were both dominant forces for their teams in the third quarter, but when Pardon began to get more support from Barry Brown Jr, Will McDowell-White and Rayan Rupert, the Breakers pulled away.

The Breakers took the game over in the second half of the third quarter with a 20-8 run and even by midway through the fourth they appeared in control.

It wasn’t to be with Perth hitting nine straight points ending with a Bryce Cotton floater and Luke Travers dunk in transition to see them grab a five-point lead with 26 seconds left, and to win by three.

It's a significant result for both teams too with the Wildcats snapping a run of losing three of the last four games on the road to improve to 11-10 and break back into the top six. 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Has Luke Travers given the Wildcats the win? ?<br><br>Find out live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/UZVxAhN1Wd">pic.twitter.com/UZVxAhN1Wd</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1612786509475905537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Breakers slip to 13-7 with a critical match up on Sunday against the 14-7 Cairns Taipans over second spot despite a clash with Melbourne United first on Thursday.

The 15 offensive rebounds and 23 second chance points was crucial in the eventual Perth win with TaShawn Thomas finishing with 23 points and 10 rebounds on 9/11 shooting.

Frontcourt partner Brady Manek also had 15 points and nine rebounds with Corey Webster finishing with 19 points, four boards and three assists, Bryce Cotton 14 points, four boards and three assists, Tai Webster 11 points and two assists, and Luke Travers 11 points and six rebounds.

Wildcats coach John Rillie was delighted with the important win in front of 11,668 home fans.

"We just stayed aggressive with our defensive coverages," Rillie said.

"We created one particular turnover that I felt got us a little momentum and the crowd was unbelievable with the way they stuck with us tonight. But it was our guys. 

"Corey Webster getting on the ground and those little things that we've been talking about and try to highlight coming to fruition is the kind of plays and style that excites me. We hung with it and man, what a great emotional win for us and onto the next one."

Dererk Pardon was a beast for New Zealand all night and so much so the Wildcats threw the double team at him in the fourth. He finished with 28 points and 12 rebounds on 13/15 shooting.

Barry Brown Jr added 16 points and three assists, Jarrell Brantley 13 points and seven rebounds, Will McDowell-White 12 points and eight assists, and Next Star Rayan Rupert eight points and four rebounds.

Breakers coach Mody Maor felt the game was one and lost with the Wildcats' work on the offensive glass.

"It turned on the glass and we gave up 15 offensive rebounds and they scored 23 points from those. This is where we lost this ball game.

"It's definitely not a good showing for us but this has been a constant thing for Perth for the last six or seven games, they've been averaging around 15 offensive rebounds a game. We pride ourselves in being a better defensive rebounding team than this.

"We started the season off rebounding poorly and we improved a lot, and this was a very bad game from us in this regard. 

"Part of it has to do with the scheme, they were switching a lot with a little bit of a size disadvantage but that's when you need to be physical, and play with heart and five players need to get in there and grab it. We didn’t do that work today and this is where we lost the ball game."

It was a slow opening from both teams with no field goal for almost two minutes when Jarrell Brantley scored for New Zealand. Eventually the Wildcats scored after three minutes through TaShawn Thomas.

The 'Cats built on that and when Thomas threw the alley-oop pass to Brady Manek, that put their team up five and then it was 15-7 when Bryce Cotton drained a three ball.

Manek nailed a three soon after to put Perth up nine before a couple of late threes from New Zealand before quarter-time from Izayah Le'afa and Rayan Rupert had the deficit just three after one.

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It was the Webster brothers who controlled the early stages of the second quarter with Tai scoring first before a couple of buckets to Corey to give Perth the nine-point edge.

A three ball from Corey on another offensive rebound had the Wildcats up 11 before eventually the Breakers hit their first field goal of the quarter after almost four minutes thanks to Pardon.

Pardon then scored after an offensive rebound and knocked down several more buckets down low before half-time to bring the Breakers back into it with the Wildcats leading narrowly 40-39 at the half.

Perth were still leading by five midway through the third quarter, but the Breakers worked on top and it was Pardon continuing to do a power of work. Brantley hit a three to get things rolling with his teammates.

Leading into three quarter-time, Will McDowell-White converted a three-point play and knocked down a long ball while Rupert showed his exciting potential with three strong takes to the basket.

The end result was the Breakers opening up a five-point advantage by three quarter-time and the Breakers were still up four a couple of minutes into the fourth.

However, from there the Wildcats scored the next seven points through their dynamic back court of Cotton and the Webster brothers.

A brilliant pass from Pardon for a Le'afa three from the corner saw New Zealand regain the lead with four minutes to play. Pardon then scored despite a Perth double-team to extend that Breakers lead to four.

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The Wildcats, though, scored the game's next five points all at the foul line to regain the lead. That became seven with a Cotton floater before a Travers dunk in transition blew it out to five with 26 seconds left which ended up sealing the deal.

The Breakers head straight to Christchurch to play Melbourne United on Thursday before returning home to Spark Arena to host the Cairns Taipans on Sunday.

The Wildcats remain at home to play the Adelaide 36ers in another critical match up on Saturday night.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 15

PERTH WILDCATS 93 (Thomas 23, C Webster 19, Manek 15)

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 90 (Pardon 28, Brown Jr 16, Brantley 13) 

BOX SCORE