The Perth Wildcats have celebrated Jesse Wagstaff’s 500-game milestone in grand style, with Bryce Cotton starring in a 104-97 win over the Sydney Kings.
Cotton tallied 30 points and five steals as the Wildcats led from start to finish in Sunday’s blockbuster clash in front of more than 14,000 fans at Qudos Bank Arena.
The result saw the Wildcats (17-11) leapfrog Sydney (16-12) into third spot.
Wagstaff became just the 14th man to reach the NBL 500 club when he stepped out against the Kings.
The 38-year-old did the one-percenters as always, and finished with a three-pointer and two offensive rebounds from 10 minutes of action.
Keanu Pinder added 12 points to go with 10 rebounds, while Kristian Doolittle (16 points, eight rebounds), Dylan Windler (14 points), Tai Webster (12 points) and Ben Henshall (11 points) also hit double figures.
Kouat Noi (24 points), Alex Toohey (23 points) and Cameron Oliver (22 points, 10 rebounds) were all big for the Kings, but star guard Jaylen Adams endured one of the worst performances of his professional career.
Adams picked up his third foul by early in the second quarter, and he fouled out in the opening minute of the last with just one point to his name on 0-of-3 shooting from the field.
It came just nine days after he drained 43 points in a shock loss to the Adelaide 36ers.
The Wildcats, led by young gun Henshall, made a hot start to the game.
The visitors led by 14 points late in the first quarter, but a buzzer-beating triple Shaun Bruce gave the Kings some momentum.
Toohey landed two triples to start the second term, but Cotton answered in kind as the lead started to balloon out again.
The Wildcats looked set to take a double-digit lead into half-time, before Toohey scored two baskets in the final six seconds of the term to reduce the margin to eight points.
The Wildcats won the rebound count a whopping 28-13 in the first half, with 13 of those being offensive boards for Perth.
The Kings whittled the margin down to five points in the third quarter as Oliver and Noi asserted their dominance.
But two long-range bombs from Cotton in the final 70 seconds ensured the Wildcats headed into the final break with an 85-74 advantage.
Cotton continued to torment the Kings in the last term, with the lead blowing out to 16 points midway through the quarter following another long bomb from the MVP favourite.
The Wildcats finished the match with 23 offensive rebounds compared to Sydney’s 10.
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