Young sharpshooters fire for Wildcats

Emerging young sharpshooters Elijah Pepper and Ben Henshall combined for 40 points and nine three-pointers as the Perth Wildcats geared up for the NBL season with a 118-100 win over an NBL1 West Select team.

The Wildcats opened up their pre-season campaign ahead of NBL25 at the redeveloped Morley Sport and Recreation Centre on the new Peter Campbell Basketball Arena, and there was a lot to like with newly signed import Dylan Windler and Next Star Izan Almansa still to come in.

Pepper is one new face with the 'Cats on the back of his college career at the University of California, Davis, and he hit four threes for 15 first half points to set the tone.

Henshall is coming into his second season and caught fire in the second half with reigning MVP Bryce Cotton showing he's ready for yet another standout campaign too.

The NBL1 West season only finished two weeks ago with the Grand Final won by the Mandurah Magic.

They had a good team picked to give the Wildcats a test too featuring Tevin Jackson, Caleb Davis, Marshall Nelson and Josh Davey with NBL experience, Johny Narkle and Ethan Elliott with a potential NBL future, and import pair CJ Turnage and De'Sean Parsons.

The Wildcats did threaten to blow the game apart thanks to Pepper catching fire to lead 32-21 by quarter-time and then open up a 16-point lead early in the second period.

However, the NBL1 West team showed good fight to close the deficit back to four by half-time before Perth blew things open further with 33 points to 16 in the third period on the way to the eventual 18-point victory.

What would have excited the Red Army the most ahead of NBL25 was the shooting performances of Elijah Pepper and Ben Henshall.

Pepper ended up with 22 points with 5/11 three-point shooting while Henshall put up 18 points and six rebounds on 4/10 shooting from downtown.

Four-time MVP Bryce Cotton also had 19 points while Hyrum Harris delivered 13 points and four assists, and Michael Harris 12 points and four assists following a standout NBL1 West season at the Warwick Senators.

Keanu Pinder also put up 11 points and three rebounds with returning import Kristian Doolittle contributing five points, seven boards and four assists, and point guard Tai Webster six points, five rebounds and five assists.

The NBL1 West team provided a good opposition with Joondalup Wolves import CJ Turnage top-scoring with 17 points while Marshall Nelson delivered 16 points, seven assists, six rebounds and three steals.

Last year's Grand Final MVP Johny Narkle had 12 points and seven rebounds with emerging point guard Ethan Elliott putting up 10 points and three assists.

The two teams will do it all again on Sunday afternoon at Lakeside Recreation Centre.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL PRE-SEASON

PERTH WILDCATS 118 (Pepper 22, Cotton 19, Henshall 18)

NBL1 WEST SELECT 100 (Turnage 17, Nelson 16, Narkle 12)

BOX SCORE

Elijah Pepper.