The Perth Wildcats have continued their great start in the NBL, with a 72-65 win over the Melbourne Tigers at Hisense arena in Melbourne.
Tasked with the tough assignment of five games on the road to start their season, the Wildcats are 3-0 and setting up what could be a run to the championship.
Asked if he had envisaged the now very real possibility of achieving a 5-0 start to the season, Perth coach Rob Beveridge was candid.
“Not at all. Personally, I would have been pleased if we started with three wins from five games,” Beveridge said.
It was a fast start to the contest, with both sides trading baskets and keeping up the pressure on the ball, until the Wildcats broke away late for a 24-19 lead at quarter time.
Damien Martin, Kevin Lisch and Matt Knight were active for the Wildcats early, while Chris Goulding had a great first quarter with 10 points for the home side. The Wildcats had more composure, with 52 per cent from the field and much better use of the ball than the Tigers, who committed five turnovers.
The Wildcats continued the second quarter in similar fashion to how they ended the first, skipping out to a 13 point lead with a Shawn Redhage jump hook and threatening to take the game away from Melbourne.
The Tigers worked hard, however, increasing their all court pressure and managing to chip away at the Wildcats lead so that when Tigers coach Chris Anstey called a timeout with 59 seconds to go in the second quarter, Perth were only up by eight points.
Whatever Anstey told his troops worked, the Tigers coming out to hold the Perth side scoreless and take four points themselves, to only be down 37-41 at half time. Kevin Braswell nailed a jumper on the buzzer to ignite the Melbourne fans and give them hope of an upset
The Tigers continued to pile on the pressure in the third quarter and got out to a three point lead, courtesy of some good defence and some sparkling offensive play, including an ally-oop pass to import Seth Scott that got the crowd on its feet.
The Wildcats rallied however, with Lisch and Everard Bartlett, who had 12 points by the end of the third quarter, stepping up to help Perth to a 62-56 lead at the break.
The Tigers came out firing to start the final term, but Perth’s defensive pressure and Melbourne’s inability to control their turnovers was key.
The Wildcats won the rebound count 34-31, but dominated the offensive boards with 15. That and the Tigers 25 turnovers proved the difference, as Perth managed to control possession and not allow Melbourne any free movement when they had the ball.
Kevin Lisch led the scoring for Perth with 16 points, while Matt Knight was also important with 14 points and eight rebounds. Import Kevin Braswell led the way for the Tigers with 18 points, while Seth Scott was also active with 16 points and nine rebounds.
Melbourne are now winless to start their season and have some work to do, but showed enough to coach Chris Anstey to suggest they can match it with the top teams.
“We can compete with the best teams in the league. We’ve just got to put four quarters together. We worked too hard and played too well in patches to make the mistakes that we did,” Anstey said.
Perth go into their bye week full of confidence and with the chance to refresh themselves for a shot at two more wins which would see them charging into their first game at Perth Stadium as hot favourites for the title.
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