To The South: Perth Capture The NBL Cup

The inaugural NBL Cup came to its conclusion and with a run of champion-standard performances, the Perth Wildcats were able to get their hands on the trophy with a game in hand.

Early production in the low post saw the New Zealand Breakers take an early lead of ten points, but high-intensity inside play from Perth, led by John Mooney and Mitchell Norton, levelled the scores just before half time. When the game resumed the Wildcats missed just four attempts in the third quarter, lifting them to the largest lead of the game at nineteen points.

The Breakers continued their inside play to bring the score down, but in the end could only get to within ten points, despite the best efforts of the game's top scorer, Finn Delany, who had 30 in the contest. Led by 24 points from Bryce Cotton, the Wildcats' 85-75 victory put them in an unreachable position in the race for the NBL Cup.

Two days later they completed their Cup campaign in style. The Adelaide 36ers came to spoil the celebration, finishing the first quarter with an 18-2 run and continuing that form in the second half, Adelaide were sitting on what looked like an insurmountable 27-point lead just before half time.

Perth proved tenacious when they returned to the court, holding Adelaide to just eight points in the third quarter, taking a slender lead before sinking the dagger in the final stretch. A concentrated effort in the low post saw the Wildcats finish the incredible turnaround, finishing the game ahead 97 points to 88, making their cup win official.

There was much more excitement to be had outside of Perth's cup success. South East Melbourne got off to a great start against the Cairns Taipans, thanks to Mitch Creek, their new signing Ryan Broekhoff and Kyle Adnam, who gave them a double-digit advantage in the second quarter. The Taipans' three-point shooters tried to close the gap, as did Nate Jawai with some statement moves in the paint.

Yannick Wetzell took over the Phoenix's scoring, helping them to retain their double-digit lead with five minutes to go. Cairns put together a 7-0 run to bring the gap down to two points ahead of the final minute, in which Adnam and Chris Gliddon finally put the game to bed, sealing SEM's victory 85 to 81.

They followed this up with a more comfortable victory two days later, where Creek and Adnam both finished with 21 points in the team's 103-89 victory over the New Zealand Breakers, who were on the back foot for three quarters despite a game-high 24 points from Delany. The day before, the Illawarra Hawks extended Melbourne United's losing streak to three games after a dagger fourth quarter they won 21-9, with a game-high 23 points from Tyler Harvey in the Hawks' 77-69 win.

The most exciting game of the week saw the Sydney Kings start strong against the Brisbane Bullets, their scoring in the paint giving them an early lead of seven, before Brisbane hit back from beyond the arc - a three from Vic Law putting them up by eleven points late in the second quarter.

Sydney then caught fire from three-point territory and quickly brought their arrears down before reclaiming the lead midway through the third quarter. By the period's end they were six points clear of the Bullets.

Henry Froling tried to make sure the Kings' lead did not get away from them, but Sydney's late shooting effort kept them in the lead, with Casper Ware and Craig Moller bringing it to double-digits in the last two minutes - effectively winning the game for the Kings.

Nathan Sobey had one of the season's highest scoring shows with 35 points for the Bullets, while Sydney were led by 25 from Casper Ware in their sensation 119-108 turnaround win.