Digging in: Wildcats bolster title credentials

A lot of the championship chatter over the past few weeks has been centred around league-leading Adelaide or surging duo, South East Melbourne and Sydney.

One name that continues to be left out of the discussions are the fifth-placed Perth Wildcats.

But that will quickly change if they continue to produce performances like they did on Saturday night, defeating the Phoenix 107-97 at the State Basketball Centre to record their third straight road win.

Wildcats coach John Rillie, whose side is now 10-4 on the road during the Hungry Jack's NBL26 season, said his players are not getting ahead of themselves.

"The significant part about this [recent run of wins] is we just have to continue to run our own race," Rillie said in Saturday's post-game press conference.

"[These road wins] help build confidence in a team that I believe still has a lot of growth in it.

"This group is in a good place right now [because of] the way we're approaching our practices and our game, rather than worrying what everyone else has to say about the Perth Wildcats.

"We know, and we talk about it all the time, that if we continue to respect what we're about, no matter the five guys on the floor, we'll end up where we want to end up."

A big part of that impressive record away from RAC Arena has been the versatility of Dylan Windler and Kristian Doolittle, who finished with 27 and 24 points respectively on Saturday.

"Dylan can look different every night, as can Doolittle, that's the beauty of them as basketball players," Rillie said.

"They can influence the game in different ways. When they can impact it with scoring, assisting, and rebounding, that's when a lot of people get excited.

"But I appreciate the little things they do along the way when they don't have those statistically pleasing games.

"Over the last couple of weeks, you can see that incrementally building, as our aggression and spacing is better.

"Right now, as a group, we're just finding a nicer groove than what we have previously, but it all comes down to spacing and playing with the pace that we want to play at [which those two help with]."

The Wildcats, who are now 14-10 on the season, next face Illawarra at RAC Arena on Friday night as part of the 2026 HoopsFest in Perth.

That fixture tips off at 7.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN.