Cotton stars in second half demolition

Bryce Cotton and the Perth Wildcats turned things up to a level the Cairns Taipans had no answer for in the second half with the four-time MVP scoring 44 points as the 'Cats heaped more pain on the Snakes with the 128-92 win.

Cotton made it four straight games with 40-plus points to be the first player in the NBL to do so since Andrew Gaze in 1991 as the Wildcats overcame a half-time deficit to outscore the Taipans 74 to 35 after the break.

The Taipans were back home at the Cairns Convention Centre trying to snap an 11-game losing streak and having been knocking on the door.

Cairns did well to hold Cotton to four points in the first quarter and even 16 points at the half with the Taipans up five up early in the third term, but then the 'Cats took over in scintillating fashion.

Perth went on a 33-10 scoring run to turn a five-point Cairns lead into an advantage of 18 points to the Wildcats as they piled on 39 points in the third stanza on 17/23 shooting from the field and 5/7 from deep without taking a free-throw.

They put up another 35 points in the fourth too including a 28-6 stretch to end up shooting 59 per cent from the field and 17/31 from deep to win by 36 and improve to 10-8.

Cotton finished with 44 points on 17/27 shooting with 3/6 from downtown and 7/8 at the stripe to go with six assists.

"He's amazing," said Taipans coach Adam Forde, an assistant coach at the 'Cats when Cotton arrived in 2017.

"I've seen the contracts he knocked back earlier in his career.

"He doesn't belong in this league, he should be balling out somewhere else in a high level.

"Right now, he's in an amazing stretch, which not just us, a few other teams have faced the brunt of. I'm just glad we don't have to play him again for a while."

Dylan Windler chimed in with 18 points, five assists, four steals and four rebounds, Keanu Pinder 13 points and 10 boards on his return, and Elijah Pepper 10 points on 2/3 shooting from deep.

"He (Cotton) stayed patient early on in the game, he was trusting his teammates and he was the recipient of their execution and his trust in them early on," said Wildcats coach John Rillie.

"We did a good job of sharing the ball, trusting each other and that's why Bryce had 44."

Cairns has now lost 12 straight and again with a rough second half with Taran Armstrong finishing with 24 points and eight assists, Tanner Groves 23 points, Rob Edwards 20 points and six rebounds, Pedro Bradshaw 13 points and five boards, and Kyrin Galloway 12 points and three rebounds.

The Snakes were hunting their first win October 6 and had been knocking on the door losing the last four just by seven points on average, and they started well against the Wildcats leading 9-2 early including Tanner Groves making a triple.

Groves then added another from deep, Taran Armstrong made a couple on his way to 11 first quarter points and the Snakes had started impressively to lead 28-22 after one with 13 rebounds to eight and holding Bryce Cotton to just the four points on 1/5 shooting.

The Taipans kept that momentum going into the second term too with a pair of early three balls to Pedro Bradshaw before Armstrong scored seven straight points and suddenly the home team was leading by 11.

The Wildcats did close out the half strongly and Cotton scored 10 points from that moment to have 16 at the half and a Dylan Windler three-point play on the buzzer cut the Cairns advantage to 57-54 at the break.

The Taipans had done plenty right in the first half chasing that drought breaking win and they did start well enough to start the second half with triples to Rob Edwards and Armstrong, but then it was all the Wildcats and all Cotton.

Perth had never led the entire first half but they hit the front with a 7-0 run topped off with a Ben Henshall three ball and the lead was out to five with Windler making another from long-range.

The 'Cats then blew the game open for good with a 17-0 scoring run started inside from Keanu Pinder and Izan Almansa before Todd Withers hit a three, and then it was closed out with deep makes from Elijah Pepper and Cotton.

Perth had turned a five-point deficit earlier in the quarter to an 18-point lead by three quarter-time and they wouldn’t be headed from there.

Another 9-0 run with threes for Pinder and Cotton saw Perth's lead grow to 23 and there was no let up with another 11-0 scoring run to make it 38 and they eventually won by 36.

The Taipans remain in Queensland next up for a Sunshine Stoush in Brisbane against the Bullets on Friday while the Wildcats play their third of seven straight road games against the Illawarra Hawks next Sunday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2024/25

CAIRNS TAIPANS 92 (Armstrong 24, Groves 23, Edwards 20)

PERTH WILDCATS 128 (Cotton 44, Windler 18, Pinder 13)

BOX SCORE