Wildcats tick boxes in Cairns win

The Perth Wildcats have ticked several boxes on the coach’s to-do list in their Friday night clash with the Taipans.

First and foremost, they picked up a comfortable 100-79 win, their 23rd of the season.

23 wins puts them six wins clear of third-placed South East Melbourne Phoenix, which means a top-two finish and home court advantage in a semi-final series is guaranteed.

Given the margin, they were able to manage the players minutes, with no player playing more than 26 minutes.

And importantly, Will Magnay had a season-high 22 minutes on the court, and a season-high 9 rebounds plus several emphatic blocks.

Given the above, Trevor Gleeson was pleased with the game.

“Yeah we ticked a lot of boxes,” he said.

“We knew we were going to get a response from Cairns, I thought they played fairly well in the first quarter, they shot the ball extremely well.

“They played zone the first half, very similar to up in Cairns, and then we were able to turn the intensity up defensively in the second and third quarters.”

The Wildcats have played five games in nine days, with another to take place in Adelaide on Sunday.

“The guys got better as the game went on, really happy with our fitness levels, we’ve got one more game through this period and hopefully we’ll continue to build what we’re doing.”

Bryce Cotton was damaging with five triples from nine attempts for his 19 points, while Todd Blanchfield also added nine with four treys of his own.

John Mooney had 16, while Clint Steindl continued his hot shooting with three bombs of his own.

The Wildcats travel to Adelaide on Saturday and will meet the 36ers on Sunday afternoon.

Perth Wildcats 100 (Cotton 19, Blanchfield 19, Mooney 16)

Cairns Taipans 79  (Djeric 15, Machado 11, Jawai 10)