The Perth Wildcats have gone down to the Gold Coast Blaze in a thriller at the Gold Coast Convention Centre with the home side coming from behind to take out the 77-74 victory.
There was a nasty moment in the dying stages of the game as well with Wildcats' big man Matt Knight, who had a terrific game up to that point with nine points and 14 rebounds, falling heavily and being carried off on a stretcher.
The starting centre suffered a concussion and has gone to hospital, but Wildcats coach Rob Beveridge is hopeful it is nothing more serious than that.
"He got knocked out. He is obviously going to head off to hospital," Beveridge said.
"He was convulsing and stuff like that, but he seems to be OK now and is conscious and talking, but they will take him to hospital to check his neck and things like that. He has a bit of a nick across his eye as well."
While Knight was being helped off the court it did bring a halt to play for several minutes, that didn’t change the momentum that was with the Blaze as they ran out three-point victors.
The Wildcats started the game tremendously with the first six points of the game and led by as much as 21 late in the second quarter, but after half-time Gold Coast slowly whittled that down.
They eventually hit the front on an Adris Deleon lay-up with over four minutes to go, and then after Luke Nevill put Perth back in front, Gold Coast took control again for the three-point win.
Giving up that 21-point lead and losing was disappointing for the Wildcats and will now leave them hungry to bounce back this Friday night in a top-of-the-table clash with the New Zealand Breakers at Challenge Stadium.
Kevin Lisch led the scoring for the Wildcats with 17 points and Luke Nevill had 10 inside for the 'Cats. Co-captain Brad Robbins chimed in with seven points as did Jesse Wagstaff and Shawn Redhage while Drew Williamson knocked down two long-range bombs for his six.
In his 100th game in the NBL, Damian Martin had five points and six rebounds. Cam Tovey had four points and Greg Hire two for the Wildcats.
Beveridge was not about to hide his disappointment in his team's second half following the game.
"It's all about winning the possession game. The team that has more possessions generally wins the game and we did that in the first half, but in the second half we didn’t. We got out-rebounded, it's as simple as that," Beveridge said.
"We were up by 19 at the start of the second half and coughed the ball up with two bad plays where they came back to score. That put us on the back foot straightaway. I just felt that in the first half they were men, in the second half they were boys.
"That's what we spoke about in the change room afterwards and that was probably the difference. They were hungrier in the second half and our boys might have felt they had done enough, and had the game."
Adam Gibson hit 28 points for the Blaze with Adris Deleon adding 15 and Mark Worthington, in his 200th NBL appearance, 15.
The Wildcats started the game on fire with the first six points with Tovey hitting two baskets, and Knight one. Worthington then hit six straight points for the Blaze, but Martin responded for the visitors with a three-pointer.
A Lisch three and Martin basket soon had the Wildcats out by five, and then scores to finish the first period from Hire and Nevill had the 'Cats leading 25-18 after one.
The Wildcats then dominated the start of the second period. Wagstaff hit a three to start it to make the margin 10 and then the 'Cats went on a 12-0 run to lead 40-20. It was then out to 21 just before half-time thanks to Nevill and still 52-33 at the main break.
Gold Coast made some inroads through the third quarter on Perth's big lead, but the Wildcats went on a 5-0 run just before three quarter-time thanks to Redhage and Lisch to lead 67-55, and then by nine heading into the last period.
The Blaze, led by Gibson and former Wildcat Chris Goulding, scored the opening six points of the final quarter and then eventually hit the lead for the first time in the game when Deleon hit his lay-up.
Nevill answered back for the 'Cats but then Deleon hit a three and the Blaze held on down the stretch in a frantic finish.
The Wildcats return to Challenge Stadium to face the New Zealand Breakers on Friday night.
Perth Wildcats 74 (Kevin Lisch 17, Luke Nevill 10, Knight 9)
defeated by
Gold Coast Blaze 77 (Adam Gibson 28, Mark Worthington 15, Adris Deleon 15)
Box scores
