The Perth Wildcats responded strongly tonight to the loss to Gold Coast last night by showing terrific toughness and character to fight out a 70-64 victory over the Cairns Taipans at the Cairns Convention Centre.
It was the Wildcats' first win in Cairns as well since November 22, 2008, and the first in Rob Beveridge's time as coach at the 'Cats.
Most of those trips to Cairns have been on the back of a game in Townsville earlier in the weekend, and this clash was given an even greater difficulty factor following last night's loss on the Gold Coast and subsequent two and-a-half hour flight this morning, but the 'Cats responded tremendously to win by six points.
Kevin Lisch again top-scored for the Wildcats with 14 points to go with seven rebounds and four assists, but it was fellow guard Everard Bartlett who came up big. In just his third game in the NBL, Bartlett scored 11 points, including three from long range, and 4-of-6 shooting from the field.
Co-captain Brad Robbins also had a good night with 10 points and four rebounds. Big man Matt Knight scored 10 points and pulled in five rebounds while dishing out a couple of assists.
Drew Williamson scored eight points, Jesse Wagstaff seven, Shawn Redhage six and Luke Nevill four. Cam Tovey might not have scored, but did pull in six boards, dish out five assists, have two steals and block a shot.
Wildcats co-captain Redhage knows how important this win in Cairns was especially after last night's loss to Gold Coast and ahead of next weekend's games in Melbourne and Wollongong.
"It was a gutsy win after playing last night on the Gold Coast and having to back up. Cairns is always tough at home as we know so we are glad to get the win. We didn’t play great, but we played good enough," Redhage said.
"We were pretty disappointed and embarrassed giving up that many points last night. Defensively we wanted to step up and I think we played pretty well. To hold them to 64 points is a pretty good job, but offensively we struggled a little bit and that could be a little bit of fatigue. We still hit some shots when we needed to and different guys stepped up when they had to."
Desperate to bounce back from last night's loss to Gold Coast, the Wildcats began the clash with Cairns strongly. Knight got the opening basket of the game, and then seven straight points from Redhage and Lisch saw the 'Cats up 9-2 early on.
The Taipans themselves went on an 8-0 themselves to lead by a point, but the Wildcats got the last four points of the period through Williamson and Wagstaff to lead at quarter-time 17-15.
Early on in the second period the Wildcats went up by five after baskets from Wagstaff and Williamson, but the Taipans regained the advantage after back-to-back threes from Aaron Grabau and Andrew Warren.
However, eight quick points late in the second quarter from Bartlett saw the Wildcats lead 30-29 at half-time.
The Wildcats went on a massive 12-0 run early on in the second half with Robbins, Lisch and Knight making big contributions. That had the 'Cats out to an 11-point advantage and it was as much as 13 after Bartlett continued his breakout performance with another three-pointer.
The Taipans hit back, though with a 9-0 run of their own to see the Wildcats lead 49-45 at three quarter-time.
The Wildcats then looked to put the game on ice with Lisch, Robbins and Wagstaff combining for six straight points to open the last quarter.
The 'Cats led at that stage by 13 points, but in the dying stages the Taipans made a comeback and got within four. However, Redhage and Lisch got the job done at the foul line to secure the 70-64 victory.
The Wildcats will now fly home to Perth tomorrow, train on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then fly to Melbourne to take on the Tigers on Friday night before a clash with the Hawks in Wollongong on Sunday as well.
Perth Wildcats 70 (Kevin Lisch 14, Everard Bartlett 11, Matt Knight 10, Brad Robbins 10)
defeated
Cairns Taipans 64 (Jamar Wilson 18, Ian Crosswhite 15, Alex Loughton 8)
Box scores
