It took a Herculean effort and a season-high factors haul from Bryce Cotton as Perth Wildcats outlasted Illawarra in an offensive clinic to maintain their play-off aspirations alive with a 106-86 win at RAC Arena.
Cotton performed all however two minutes of Friday’s must-win conflict with the Wildcats going into the Perth fixture clinging to the sixth and closing spot within the play-in event on share.
He registered a season-high 40 factors, hit seven of his 11 three-point makes an attempt and was an infinite plus 39 for his aspect.
Wildcats coach John Rillie says Cotton’s scoring is impeccable however it’s his work in different elements on the ground that ought to earn him MVP consideration once more.
“He’s been playing at a very high level all year, our team results have just not been at a high level. So I think that’s where it gets lost in the wash,” Rillie mentioned.
“The scoring speaks for itself and it’s easy to notice that stuff. But you talk about the assists, the rebounding, defending, all those other things that go into it that get overlooked because he’s a phenomenal scorer. There’s a lot in his game that gets overlooked.”
With the win, Perth now transfer to 14-11 for the season and forward of Tasmania into fifth following their loss to Sydney in Friday’s earlier sport.
But it did not come simply in entrance of a packed home in Perth as Illawarra’s Tyler Harvey (23 factors) duelled all sport with Cotton, earlier than the latter lastly received a relaxation within the dying moments after Brady Manek emphatically shut the consequence out with a dunk by contact.
Illawarra merely ran out of gasoline within the closing quarter and will solely muster eight factors with their defence set on denying Cotton the ball.
Harvey led his aspect in scoring with Sam Froling including 21 factors however their high-percentage taking pictures pale rapidly within the second half because the Hawks stay backside of the ladder with simply three wins this season.
“I thought we battled. It sort of got away from us towards the end of the third and the fourth,” Hawks coach Jacob Jackomas mentioned.
“I’m sure there’s some things we can work on and some things that let us down. But, I didn’t think we quit even though it did stretch out a bit at the end.”
The hosts have been made to pay within the opening half significantly within the paint as Illawarra crashed the glass and leveraged their dimension on their approach to a 22-17 rebound rely.
Perth are final within the league in defensive rebounding and rebounds per sport, however continued to search out Cotton’s scorching hand as his three pointer earlier than halftime narrowed the deficit to 5 factors.
Both groups exchanged the lead till Cotton’s powerful layup on the rim halfway by the third time period which impressed a 11-4 run to shut the quarter.
With Perth beginning the fourth on one other brief six to zero run, Illawarra’s makes an attempt stopped falling and the hosts’ lead grew to twenty on the closing horn.
Cotton and his Wildcats teammates journey to Tasmania for a giant conflict with the JackJumpers on Sunday that can probably decide the inaugural play-in event seedings.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
