The Perth Wildcats have fallen to the Melbourne Tigers in the NBL's Heritage Round tonight at the State Netball Hockey Centre with the home side coming from 21 points down to record the 87-82 victory over the 'Cats.
The Wildcats got off to a scintillating opening to the first game of the second-straight weekend of two road games.
Click here to the post-match press conference of Rob Beveridge and Matt Knight
Or listen to Melbourne coach Trevor Gleeson and import forward Ron Dorsey
The 'Cats hit their first five three-pointers of the contest and led by as much as 21 points in the second quarter, but Melbourne hit back hard in the second half outscoring Perth 52-32 to beat the Wildcats at The Cage for the first time in almost two years..
On the back of last weekend's road trip that saw the Wildcats lose to the Gold Coast Blaze on Saturday and beat the Cairns Taipans on Sunday.
It was then back on the road to face the Tigers tonight and from Melbourne, the 'Cats are off to Wollongong to face the Hawks on Sunday. That game will again be broadcast live on 91.3 SportFM (www.sportfm.com.au) from 4.30pm WA time.
As for tonight's game, big man Matt Knight was unstoppable with 24 points on the back 7-of-13 shooting from the field and 10-off-11 from the foul line. He also pulled in seven rebounds.
Brad Robbins had an enthralling duel with Patty Mills and had an outstanding game with 13 points, eight boards, five assists and two steals.
Jesse Wagstaff added 11 points, Everard Bartlett 10 (three assists), Kevin Lisch six (five rebounds, three assists, two steals), Cam Tovey five (seven boards, four assists, four steals), Shawn Redhage five, Luke Nevill four, Drew Williamson three and Greg Hire one.
Ayinde Ubaka top-scored for Melbourne with 23 points while Cam Tragardh added 22 and Ron Dorsey 18. Mills finished with six points and six assists.
Wildcats coach Rob Beveridge was lost for answers as to why there was such a big change from the first to the second half with his team.
"If I knew that, I probably wouldn’t be a basketball coach. I have absolutely no idea. From being so disciplined and focused in the first half, to playing how we did in the second half it's very difficult to explain," Beveridge said.
"You hate all those clichés like it was a game of two halves and things like that, but it certainly was that tonight. Just the focus and discipline of the group in the first half was as good as I've had with our group. When we play like that we are so good, we really are. We knew that they were going to make runs and come at us in the second half, and they just went bang, bang, bang.
"We didn’t push the ball and we went away from everything that we did. I'm very, very disappointed with how we came out after half-time. The boys seemed to be very focused, but it just wasn’t a good enough start and when you get a team like the Tigers feeling good about themselves, they are very tough."
The Wildcats started the game on fire with Knight nailing seven points early and after threes to Wagstaff and Williamson to close out the opening period the 'Cats were up by double-figures.
Three-point bombs to Lisch, Bartlett and Redhage early in the second quarter meant that not only had the Wildcats not yet missed from long range, but that the 'Cats were in control of the contest.
The lead late in the second period eventually stretched to 21 with the scores at 47-26 with Knight adding nine more points in quick succession. Melbourne did come back with seven straight points of its own, but two free-throws for Knight late meant the 'Cats still led 50-35 at the main break.
Melbourne started the third quarter on fire with the first nine points through stars of the night Tragardh, Ubaka and Dorsey.
While four quick points to Nevill and a three to Bartlett meant the Wildcats led by 11 points again soon after, the Tigers had claimed the momentum and by the end of the third quarter they were within a point.
Two points to Ubaka to start the last quarter saw Melbourne hit the front and even though the Wildcats regained a four-point advantage after a bucket to Knight and three to Tovey, it was an uphill battle from there for the visitors.
While a Tovey mid-range jumper again gave the 'Cats the lead and on two more occasions the scores were tied, with Redhage and Tovey fouling out, on this occasion the Tigers had the answers down the stretch to claim the five-point win.
Perth Wildcats 82 (Matt Knight 24, Brad Robbins 13, Jesse Wagstaff 11)
defeated by
Melbourne Tigers 87 (Ayinde Ubaka 23, Cam Tragardh 22, Ron Dorsey 18)
Box scores
