The Streak is Over, Phoenix Knock Out Wildcats

After 35 straight seasons and 10 championships along the way, the Perth Wildcats' historic run in the NBL has been ended on Sunday at RAC Arena courtesy of the South East Melbourne Phoenix with Tasmania JackJumpers the beneficiaries.

It is one of the longest standing and remarkable records in world sport. The Wildcats have taken part in the past 35 straight NBL finals series and for much of #NBL22 they appeared on target to stretch that streak to 36.

That was until they hit a hiccup in recent weeks on their home floor and then they were dealt a savage blow with superstar forward Vic Law ruled out for the rest of the season with an ankle injury.

With a loss also at home to the Illawarra Hawks on Friday night and then the JackJumpers beating Melbourne United on Saturday, it all came down to the very last game of the regular season to determine if the Wildcats' streak would continue or not.

And it couldn’t be decided in 40 minutes. The Wildcats and Phoenix needed overtime to decide a winner. Ultimately it was South East Melbourne who played spoilers with Mitch Creek, Brandon Ashley and Xavier Munford leading the charge.

The Phoenix ended up winning 102-100 to mean that both themselves and the Wildcats miss the post-season after being considered title threats for much of the campaign.

The big winners out of the whole thing are the JackJumpers. In their inaugural NBL season, they make the finals and will take on United in the semi finals starting Thursday night. The Illawarra Hawks and Sydney Kings battle in the other series.

There was stunned silence at RAC Arena with the Phoenix securing the win on the back of 24 points, nine assists, six rebounds and two steals from Xavier Munford.

Brandon Ashley delivered 17 points and six boards, Mitch Creek 15 points and six rebounds, captain Kyle Adnam 14 points and two assists, Zhou Qi 11 points, and Izayah Le'afa 10 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell was proud of the way his team finished the season despite the disappointment of how it's panned out overall.

"This team will never be together again in its current incarnation and it's going to be an opportunity we look back on, and think if only things fell our way and if only we could have broken down the wall on a few issues we had," Mitchell said. 

"So there's disappointment we're going to be reflecting upon but it's a great group of young men, we all love each other and we get along great. For whatever reasons we just couldn’t get it done together as a unit on the court for long enough. 

"You don't want it to be a regretful season, though, and you go out in a bad way. You want to be able to look back on our season together and remember the relationships, and have something that we shared. We shared a struggle but now we've shared a victory that I think we can all take great pride in."

It was the shooting that proved costly for Perth going 39 per cent from the field and 10/41 at 24 per cent from downtown. 

Bryce Cotton put up 28 points and eight assists, Michael Frazier 22 points and six rebounds, Matt Hodgson 12 points and 10 boards, Mitch Norton 11 points, and Todd Blanchfield 10 points and eight rebounds.

Wildcats coach Scott Morrison wanted to thank the support of the Perth fans before anything else post-match.

"Obviously it wasn’t the result we were hoping for either tonight or over the course of the season, but I wanted to thank the fans and the Red Army for sticking with us," Morrison said.

"It was a big contribution for every home game and I'm sorry that we didn’t meet your expectations for this season. 

"I know expectations are high here as they should be and for what it's worth, we won't forget the support that you gave us and me personally, for giving me a chance. Things will be improved for next season I can promise you that."

If the pressure wasn’t already on the Wildcats coming into the game, then a 5-0 start from the Phoenix turned that up further before Matt Hodgson got the home team on the board.

That didn’t stop the South East Melbourne Phoenix leading 7-2 before a pair of threes from Michael Frazier and Kevin White, and three free-throws from Bryce Cotton soon had Perth on top to the relief of the Red Army.

The 'Cats soon pushed out to an eight-point lead but the Phoenix hadn’t come to town to roll over, and it was just a three-point game by quarter-time in favour of the home side.

Brandon Ashley and Mitch Creek put the Phoenix back on top to open the second term before Cotton responded with the next five points. 

Despite Phoenix triples from Xavier Munford and Creek, the 'Cats continued to pull away and two more bombs from deep to close the half from Frazier ensured they were still on top 52-46 by the major break.

South East Melbourne were certainly not interested in going away and with Munford scoring another eight points in the opening minutes of the second half, he kept his team in the hunt.

Frazier hit another three ball to push Perth back out to a six-point edge but again by three quarter-time the lead was only three.

The Phoenix were up for the challenge of attempting to end the streak and it was Ashley who put them back on top, and then captain Kyle Adnam hit from deep to give them the five-point advantage.

The 'Cats had to dig deep to avoid missing the finals for the first time since 1986 and it was their superstar Cotton and vice-captain Mitch Norton who stepped up to hit from beyond the arc to again level scores with 1:35 left.

Creek responded to put South East Melbourne back up three but a free-throw to Norton and then a tough finish to Cotton tied things back up. Munford got a good look at the winner with a mid-range jumper but it didn’t fall and we went to overtime.

And history was made in the extra five minutes. Perth was up 98-97 when Frazier scored with two minutes left, but the game was then decided with scores to Zhou Qi and Creek, and then a free-throw from Munford.

An offensive foul call proved pivotal on Cotton and he missed another tough shot that could have tied it, and that was it. The Phoenix ended the streak and Perth will miss finals for the first time since 1986.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 21

PERTH WILDCATS 100 (Cotton 28, Frazier 22, Hodgson 12)

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 102 (Munford 24, Ashley 17, Creek 15) 

BOX SCORE