The Perth Wildcats have just fallen short of a big last quarter comeback to end up going down to the Cairns Taipans 76-67 at the Cairns Convention Centre in the Round 19 NBL clash tonight.
After the Wildcats led after a low-scoring first quarter 12-10, Cairns had opened a three-point advantage by half-time and then came out strong to open the second half to end up leading by as much as 19 points during the third quarter.
The 'Cats did not stop fighting, though, much like last week in New Zealand against the Breakers and scored 26 points to Cairns' 19 in the final period, but it wasn’t quite enough.
Seven straight points early in the last quarter helped get the Wildcats going and then back-to-back threes to Kevin Lisch, and another to Damian Martin made the margin seven points with just over a minute to go.
With 51 seconds to go it was six points after a Jesse Wagstaff score, but the Taipans held on to win by nine.
Lisch led the scoring with 16 points to go with three rebounds. Big man Knight had a big night also with 13 points and seven boards. Luke Nevill and NBL Player of the Month for January Wagstaff both had 12 points apiece.
Damian Martin scored five points to go with four steals, three assists and two rebounds. Co-captain Brad Robbins had four points, two boards, two assists and a steal. Cam Tovey scored three points and Shawn Redhage two.
Wildcats coach Rob Beveridge was disappointed in the performance post-match, especially with the fact that Cairns was able to control the way the game was played and turn it into a grind out, half-court contest just how they like it.
"It was a game where it was going to come down to whichever team dictated the tempo. Cairns is a terrific half-court team and they dictated the game pretty much the whole night, and that's why they won the game. We dictated the tempo in that last quarter and gave ourselves a chance to win, but it was too late," Beveridge said.
"In that last quarter, they played free and just went for it but that's easy to do when you are 14 or 15 points down. It was great to watch how we can play when they guys do that, but we were never going to win the game from that point. It was too late and it was because we had let them dictate the tempo of the game.
"We didn’t make our open shots and far too often we turned down good shots that our guys should be taking. We just didn’t play Wildcats basketball tonight. We were even outrebounded for the first time in a long and we just didn’t play anything like how we try to play. It was very disappointing."
Cairns got the better of the opening minutes of the contest leading 10-4 after just over four minutes, but then the Wildcats finished the first quarter strongly with four points to Wagstaff, and two each to Knight and Nevill the 'Cats ended up leading 12-10 at quarter-time.
A Robbins lay-up off a steal early in the second quarter ensured the Wildcats stayed on top, and then the lead was out to four on the back of a 6-0 run courtesy of Nevill and Lisch, but Cairns was able to bounce back and lead 29-26 at half-time.
Cairns then came out and scored the first 14 points of the third quarter thanks to three long-range bombs from Andrew Warren and another from Jamar Wilson.
The Wildcats' broke the run with a triple to Tovey and then a basket to Nevill, but the Taipans led by as much as 19 and still by 16 at three quarter-time.
Martin gave Perth the perfect start to the final period and then Knight chimed in with a bucket, a triple and another basket. The margin was then down to 12 after four quick points to Nevill and then in the space of 30 seconds, Lisch nailed two big threes.
With just under a minute and-a-half to go that brought the 'Cats to within eight points, then seven when Martin nailed a three with 1min 9sec to go and then six when Wagstaff scored with 51 seconds remaining. However, the Taipans ended up holding on to win by nine points.
The Wildcats remain in second position on the NBL ladder with a 14-7 record with seven games of the season to go starting next Sunday at Challenge Stadium against the Sydney Kings.
Perth Wildcats 67 (Kevin Lisch 16, Matt Knight 13, Jesse Wagstaff 12, Luke Nevill 12)
defeated by
Cairns Taipans 76 (Jamar Wilson 24, Alex Loughton 11, Aaron Grabau 9)
Box scores
