Wildcats Too Much for JackJumpers with Record Crowd

The new Perth Wildcats import trio of Bryce Cotton, Michael Frazier and Vic Law combined for 68 points to help deliver their team a 101-83 win over the Tasmania JackJumpers on Sunday in front of a record RAC Arena crowd.

The game is the fifth at home for the Wildcats to start the #NBL22 season but it's also the last inside RAC Arena until at least February when the West Australian borders are opened to the rest of the country.

As a result, the Red Army turned out in droves like never before with 13,615 fans attendance to see a dominant showing from their team in the 18-point win as they now head on the road with a 3-1 record.

The JackJumpers battled hard but could never seriously threaten after falling down double-figures with the 'Cats raking in 51 rebounds to just 30 from the JackJumpers. 

Perth also shot 51 per cent from the field and went 10/25 at 40 per cent from deep while Tasmania went just 42 per cent from the floor and 6/27 at 22 per cent from downtown.

Ultimately, the three Perth imports were the difference as Cotton, Law and Frazier combined for 68 points on 23/43 shooting from the field and 6/14 from downtown.

Law put up 17 fourth quarter points on his way to 32 for the game to go with 12 rebounds with Cotton added 23 points, seven boards and six assists, and Frazier 13 points and seven rebounds.

Wildcats coach Scott Morrison was especially happy with the offensive showing to shoot 51 per cent from the field, 40 from three 100 from the foul line.

"I liked that offensively we attacked pretty consistently the whole game," he said. 

"We didn’t settle a whole lot and for the most part we attacked the paint pretty well and got ourselves some good shots. The guys definitely shot the ball well and going 50-40-100, it's hard to beat that. It was the offensive side I was happiest about."

Josh Magette finished with 17 points, six assists, five rebounds and four steals for the JackJumpers, Josh Adams 15 points and Jack McVeigh seven points, Will Magnay seven and Clint Steindl seven.

Tasmania coach Scott Roth is realistic to know it's a slow build for his team.

"There's 35 years of history here of great basketball with the Wildcats and we have four weeks of basketball," Roth said.

"One of the things that we are trying to hang our hat on is just being very competitive and scrappy. Our margin of error is not very big and they have two prolific scorers with Cotton and Law, but we were around that nine or 11-point mark for quite a while but just didn’t score or shoot the ball very well. 

"I like our grit and our fight, but I don't like losing. At the end of the day, it's been four weeks of the JackJumpers basketball and we just went against 35 years of Wildcats basketball."

The Wildcats threatened to blow the game open early with Vic Law knocking down a couple of jumpers before they forced turnovers on consecutive plays for Bryce Cotton and Law to finish in transition.

The 'Cats were up 14-7 but the JackJumpers did well to steady and it was energy provided off the bench from Fabijan Krslovic and Matt Kenyon that helped them keep Perth's edge to 21-15 at quarter-time.

It didn’t take long into the second quarter with Perth to stretch its lead out beyond double-figures starting with a three from development player Corey Shervill. The 'Cats then went on a 9-0 run beginning with a Kevin White triple and finishing with a Luke Travers dunk after a steal.

The signs weren’t great for Tasmania but they did respond to score 14 of the of the next 20 points to stay within a degree of touch and cut the Perth lead to 11 by half-time.

Michael Frazier was then warming to the task in his second game for the Wildcats with a couple of nice moves to the bucket and an open three. Cotton then drained a three too and the 'Cats were up 19.

It threatened to get out of hand but the JackJumpers kept fighting and eight points to close the third from Josh Magette saw Tasmania cut Perth's three quarter-time lead to 15.

While the JackJumpers never seriously threatened in the fourth period, Law ensured a big win for the Wildcats in front of the record crowd ahead of their stretch on the road. 

He put up 17 points in the final term alone include a stretch late in the piece with three consecutive three-pointers with the 'Cats going on to win by 18.

The JackJumpers now have a busy week either side of Christmas by taking on the Kings in Sydney on Wednesday before hosting the winless New Zealand Breakers on Boxing Day.

The Wildcats have now played their five home games until at least February with their road stretch beginning on Tuesday December 28 in Adelaide against the 36ers.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 3

PERTH WILDCATS 101 (Law 32, Cotton 23, Frazier 13)

TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 83 (Magette 17, Adams 15, McVeigh 7, Magnay 7, Steindl 7) 

BOX SCORE