Wildcats make it three straight at home

They might have been without their starting centre and point guard, but the Perth Wildcats made it three straight home wins just having enough of the answers to beat the South East Melbourne Phoenix 92-88.

It was the Wildcats' fourth straight game at RAC Arena to start NBL27, and they were hosting their annual Pink Game for Breast Cancer WA after beating the Adelaide 36ers and New Zealand, following a first-up loss to the Phoenix.

South East Melbourne hadn’t won since that opening night win in Perth and the Phoenix were playing catch up most of the evening in front of 11,831 fans.

They kept themselves close enough to strike, but could never quite hit that dagger blow with the Wildcats having enough of the answers to secure the four-point win while having led for almost 33 minutes but never by more than six points.

The 'Cats did it without Brandon Knight who now is in the country and with Jo Lual-Acuil Jr out with a calf injury with Elijah Pepper maintaining his career-best form to open NBL27 with another 25 points while going 7/7 at the stripe.

Anthony Dell'Orso added 22 points with Kristian Doolittle contributing 22 points, eight assists and seven rebounds, and Dylan Windler 14 points, nine boards and four assists.

The Phoenix are now 1-3 and again the three ball deserted them going 12/45 despite getting up an extra 14 shots on the back of collecting 17 offensive rebounds.

Nathan Sobey (12 points, eight assists) and Tanner Krebs combined to go 0/11 from deep with D'Shawn Schwartz, Jordan Hunter (11 points, six boards) and Angus Glover (11 points) also going 4/17 between them.

Skylar Mays top scored with 17 points with seven assists and five rebounds while Dash Daniels added 13 points and seven boards, and Akech Aliir 13 points and four rebounds.

The teams renewed their hostilities from less than two weeks ago at RAC Arena, and the Wildcats held a slender lead through the first quarter before finishing up 26-24.

Kristian Doolittle started well with 10 points for the 'Cats while they shot 4/7 from the outside to 4/12 from South East Melbourne with Skylar Mays scoring nine points and Angus Glover five including a triple just before the buzzer.

Perth continued to threaten to pull away in the second frame but could never quite do it and were clinging to the 48-46 advantage by half-time while going 7/14 from the outside and 11/11 at the foul line to the 7/22 and 3/4 from the visitors.

Doolittle was up to 16 points for the 'Cats on 4/6 shooting with 6/6 at the stripe with Elijah Pepper contributing 12 and Anthony Dell'Orso 10.

Mays was doing a lot right for the Phoenix to keep them in touch with 15 points and three assists.

It was a similar story in the third quarter and by the end of it the Wildcats were still leading 70-67 to set up a big finish and remained a tight battle through the last term too.

The Phoenix had 16 of the game's first 25 offensive rebounds, but a crucial one from Dell'Orso inside the last minute got him to the line, where he hit two clutch free throws to push the Perth lead to four with 40 seconds to go.

Pepper then stepped up with four big free throws to and the Wildcats were able to close the door on South East Melbourne for good.

The Phoenix have another quick turnaround before hosting the Illawarra Hawks in the early game on Sunday while the Wildcats don't play again until hosting the New Zealand Breakers next Saturday night.

PERTH WILDCATS 92 – SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 88

Perth Wildcats
Elijah Pepper – 25 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists
Anthony Dell'Orso – 22 points, 7/12 FG
Kristian Doolittle – 22 points, 8 assists, 7 rebounds
Dylan Windler – 14 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists
Jesse Wagstaff – 5 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist

SE Melbourne Phoenix
Skylar Mays – 17 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds
Dash Daniels – 13 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists
Akech Aliir – 13 points, 4 rebounds
Nathan Sobey – 12 points, 8 assists, 3 rebounds
Jordan Hunter – 11 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists