Bryce Cotton has torched the Cairns Taipans for 35 points as the four-time NBL MVP got the Perth Wildcats back to winning form with the 90-87 road victory.
The Wildcats arrived in Far North Queensland on a three-game losing run, but Cotton wasn’t going to let them lose again as he shot 7-of-10 from three-point land even with a late scare from Cairns and Rob Edwards.
The two teams arrived at Cairns Convention Centre in complete opposite form with the Taipans fresh off beating Melbourne and Tasmania last weekend while the 'Cats lost to both teams in the same round.
Both were then missing a star for the Thursday night match up with Cairns without Taran Armstrong (ankle) and the Wildcats without explosive big man Keanu Pinder (concussion).
Cotton was coming off a tough weekend, but hit three long-range bombs in the opening quarter on his way to 14 first-half points.
With Kristian Doolittle adding 13 points and seven rebounds, the Wildcats went into halftime leading 48-41 on the back of 51 per cent shooting opposed to the Taipans who were going at 38, despite four threes and 12 points to Jonah Antonio.
Cotton was only just warming up, though, and he put up 14 more points in the third quarter with the Wildcats doing enough to hold on and win by three to snap their losing run.
On top of what Cotton produced, Doolittle was every bit as important in the win for Perth stepping up in the absence of Pinder with 19 points, 11 rebounds and four assists.boards
Dylan Windler also returned with 13 points, three boards and three steals.
"We're a pretty confident bunch of guys, we just haven't been playing well but tonight it was great to be in a situation where we could control our own destiny," Wildcats coach John Rillie said.
"To hold on and now have a nine-day break gives us a chance to work on some things since we have some of our roster members back."
The absence of Armstrong was sorely felt by the Taipans despite another 24 points and seven rebounds from star scoring import Rob Edwards.
Sam Waardenburg added 14 points, seven assists and five rebounds, Pedro Bradshaw 12 points and eight boards, and Antonio 12 points, but none in the second half.
"We made a lot of errors and it was off the back of errors on scout, on personnel, on execution on offence," a frustrated Taipans coach Adam Forde said.
"What's crazy to think is that we had a chance to take that into OT ... but the reality is we probably had no business winning this game."
