PERTH Wildcats continued their dominance over South Dragons, crushing the NBL second year franchise 97-81 at Melbourne’s Vodafone Arena.
The Wildcats kept the Dragons from establishing any rhythm on offence, with the home shooting at a woeful 33.3 per cent.
At the other end, Perth was able to find the open man seemingly at will, finishing the night with an impressive 21 assists and 46.1 field-goal shooting percentage.
The visitors had waited until the last quarter of their three previous meetings to make the game-winning move, but tonight it was a four-minute, 10-0 run at the start of the third term that decided the contest.
Their one-point, 50-49 half-time edge swelled to 15 points, 75-60, at the last change and ballooned to 20 early in the fourth.
Although South drew to within nine inside the final five minutes, they failed to sustain the rally.
Guard Rashad Phillips paced the Wildcats with 20 points and seven assists, while fellow starters Alex Loughton 22 points and Sean Redhage, who netted 18, were also good.
Perth, who has never lost to South, improve to 2-1, while the Dragons fall to 0-2 and remain winless alongside Wollongong and New Zealand.
South held a 29-28 advantage at quarter-time, but its offence went south from then on, shooting a poor 7-of-22 in the second term and 5-of-18 in the third before heating up in the last.
Best for the Dragons were their imports Cortez Groves, who led all scorers with 24 points, and Nick Horvath (22 points and nine rebounds).
Perth also comprehensively won the contest on the boards, out rebounding South 55-42.
To complete the round, Perth visits defending champions Brisbane Bullets on Friday while the Dragons are away to Adelaide on Saturday.
Perth Wildcats coach Scott Fisher said the team really cranked up its defensive pressure in the third term.
"We played that a lot smarter than we did the other night (in the loss to West Sydney) and it certainly was good to get a win," Fisher said.
"We really did feel like if we took care of the ball and moved it around a couple of times, we felt we could get on top of them."
South Dragons player-coach Shane Heal, who had eight first-term points but added just three more in the final three quarters, said missing shots put a lot of pressure on their defence.
"I felt like we missed just so many open shots. We just couldn’t make a bucket," Heal said.
"The shots that we missed were shots where guys were naked and have to step up with the confidence and just knock it down.
"You miss those shots and you give a team like Perth a chance to run and then you’re on the back foot the whole time trying to play defence against a team that’s good."
AAP
Source: foxsports.com.au
