Bullets come up just short against Wildcats

Chris Smith and Josh Bannan had terrific shooting nights and the Brisbane Bullets once again did plenty right for a lot of the evening, but the Perth Wildcats scored seven straight points late for the 79-76 victory.

The Bullets were back at Nissan Arena to play host to the Wildcats on Saturday night with a sold out crowd on hand, and while it was a bit of a grind from both sides a lot of the contest, it was Smith and Bannan who kept Brisbane on top.

Smith caught fire in the second quarter to score 15 of his 23 points for the game while Bannan hit nine of his 17 points in the third quarter. With five minutes to play after a triple from Smith, Brisbane was on top by seven.

The lead was still six with three to play, but the Wildcats closed the game with a 15-6 run to heap some more late game frustrations on the Bullets to claim the three-point win.

Again there was a lot to like from a Bullets point of view to be in a winning position, but giving up the last eight points of the first half, sending Perth to the foul line 37 times and allowing them 17 offensive rebounds for 19 second chance points proved costly.

Smith ended up top-scoring for Brisbane with 23 points to go with four rebounds, two assists and two steals on 10/15 shooting from the field and 3/7 from downtown.

Bannan added 17 points and six rebounds while going 3/4 from behind the three-point line with Nathan Sobey contributing 13 points, Tyrell Harrison six points, four boards and two blocks, and Isaac White four points and six rebounds.

Mitch Norton also had three points, four assists and two steals, DJ Mitchell three points and two rebounds, Aron Baynes three points, five boards and two assists, Sam McDaniel two points, and Rocco Zikarsky two points and four rebounds.

Bryce Cotton top-scored for the Wildcats with 25 points with Kristian Doolittle adding 21 and Hyrum Harris 14.

Tyrell Harrison shook off a sore calf last week to play and take his place in the starting five for the Bullets, and scored the first points of the game. He added another bucket soon after too but it was a tight and low-scoring grind in the opening period for both teams.

In the end a three-pointer on the quarter-time buzzer from DJ Mitchell on the back of an offensive rebound helped Brisbane to the 16-14 lead with both teams combining to shoot 13/38 from the floor and 1/8 from downtown.

Chris Smith then caught fire to open the second frame scoring six quick points to give Brisbane the 22-14 advantage. He kept on going too and would end up scoring 15 of Brisbane's 17 points for the quarter including helping them to a 33-24 advantage.

However, the Wildcats scored the last eight points of the half to cut that Brisbane lead to 33-32 with Smith was the outstanding offensive performer in the game with the 15 points on 7/8 shooting while the rest of the two teams combined to go 20/66 including 3/23 from behind the three-point line.

Josh Bannan opened the scoring to start the second half and he would go on to score seven points in the opening minutes of the half to help the Bullets hold onto a narrow lead.

Smith then hit another triple for his only points of the third period to keep the Bullets on top, and Nathan Sobey's driving layup just before the buzzer ensured Brisbane led 53-50 by three quarter-time.

A Bannan three-pointer early in the final quarter pushed Brisbane's lead to five and the Bullets kept the momentum going with Sobey throwing down a breakaway slam with seven minutes to go to be up eight.

Bannan and Smith continued their outstanding nights with three-pointers following that too with the lead out to nine with just under five minutes to play.

A Sobey bucket with three minutes on the clock kept Brisbane on top by six, but Perth answered with triples from Kristian Doolittle and Bryce Cotton.

Then, despite a dunk from Bannan on the back of a picture perfect pass from Aron Baynes and a turnaround jumper from Smith, Perth scored the last seven points to claim the three-point victory.

The game wraps up the first 12 games of the season for the Bullets ahead of next week's break for the FIBA international window.

Coming out of the break, Brisbane will be on the road to the Cairns Taipans on Friday December 1 before backing up two days later at home at Nissan Arena playing host to the Illawarra Hawks.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 8

BRISBANE BULLETS 76 (Smith 23, Bannan 17, Sobey 13)

PERTH WILDCATS 79 (Cotton 25, Doolittle 21, H Harris 14)

BOX SCORE