The MVP knows when its "Game Time" and proved it once again in the cauldron of the fourth quarter at the Fortress. Photo by Zimbio
Cotton’s 12 point final quarter ended up proving the difference in the contest as the Sixers and Wildcats went head to head in the opening quarter.
THE WRAP Q BY Q
Ramone Moore re-endeared himself to the crowd with a triple for the opening score of the season before “2hard2guard” Adris Deleon made his return to the NBL dressing the crowd in a long range bomb and some passion to boot. New Wildcats import Terrico White made his presence felt early while the addition of Nick Kay gave the Wildcats front court a much more flowing look compared to the stagnant one dimensional key way presence of the finals last season. Both teams were deadlocked at 23-23 a piece at quarter time.
The Wildcats began to expose the potential weakness of the Sixers under the basket (and perhaps an onset of lag from the NBL/NBA series) as Kay, returning tower Tom Jervis and Angus Brandt went to work underneath to push the Wildcats out to a 41-48 lead at the half. The newly appointed skipper of the Sixers DJ and the “one to watch” this season in Nathan Sobey keeping the Sixers in the contest. The Wildcats then opened the gap up early to as many as 15 points before an inspired import arrival of Jacob “get outta my way” Wiley and Sobey combined for 19 points in the third quarter to lead the Sixers back to the front, the only blemish conceding a two handed walk through the lane jam to Kay on the three quarter buzzer to give the Wildcats the lead 73-74 with one to play.
Deleon continued a solid debut for the Sixers while Brendan Teys found some of his late from as the Sixers led 80-76 with 6:05 to go and the game looked like through the depth of the Sixers bench it was going their way. Then at the 3:51 mark, Cotton turned the game on its head dropping his first of 12 points for the quarter as he along with the defensive nous of Damian Martin and Mitch Norton led the Wildcats to an upset win over the Sixers.
COACH SPEAK
Sixers Coach Joey Wright described his team having a “hero” ball mentality and lamented the ability of his team to stick to the gameplan that got them back into the game in the third quarter, “We didn’t play to our game style and we shot 29 three pointers, that’s not us, they were scoring easy points because of that and they were able to get back and slow us down with their zone.”
Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson commented pre game about building the team around Cotton but that notion also assisted the Wildcats mantra of how they wanted to play ball, “We find the guy who is getting going so that was Terrico (White) and Nick (Kay) for most of the night, we had a big emphasis to get the ball in the post early and showed some patience.”
DO THE STATS LIE?
The Sixers for the record shot 21 percent from beyond the arc in 23 shots and only had 4 fast break points in key indicators of how the Wildcats were able to make the Sixers play the style they didn’t want.
The Wildcats dished 18 assists and shot 47 percent from the field to back-up Gleeson’s point about finding the scorer and working the ball inside the paint.
WHATS NEXT FOR THE SIXERS
Last season the Sixers dropped a close opener to United before heading to Sydney to face the Kings on the Saturday, as the Finn’s say history never repeats but in this case it does as the Sixers head to the “King-dome” of Qudos for an appointment with the new incoming paint King Andrew Bogut, the ever reliable Kevin Lisch and former Sixers import Jerome Randle. The expectation will be high on the Kings so the Sixers can sneak an early win not only this Saturday but next Friday before the Kings find their rhythm in their royal court.
As Joey said the Sixers don’t need heroes, but they do need avengers…
ADELAIDE 36ERS 91 (JOHNSON 23, SOBEY 20, WILEY 13, DELEON 11) LOST TO PERTH WILDCATS 99 (COTTON 22, WHITE 20, KAY 18, JERVIS 12)
CROSS OVER DRIBBLE 