Bullets stun Cats in OT

After a big week, the Brisbane Bullets came out inspired, willing their way them to a 106-95 overtime win against the Perth Wildcats at Nissan Arena.

It was a night of firsts as Sam Mackinnon chalked up his first win as Head Coach in the NBL in front of an energetic Brisbane crowd.

The Bullets were again without Aron Baynes, Kody Stattmann and Ty Harrison on Thursday night against a Wildcats unit who were also eager to chalk up a win. But it was Brisbane who banded together and were able to get it done, outscoring the visitors 14-3 in overtime to claim a deserved win.

Brisbane were on a mission from the jump and it was clear the team were all in. Despite being undersized in multiple positions, the Bullets outrebounded the Wildcats by 12 and had 54 points in the paint.

Sobey was inspirational for the Bullets with 28 points, four rebounds and three assists while playing over 41 minutes.

Tyler Johnson added 18 points, six rebounds and three assists and Tanner Krebs continued his strong form with 18 points on 7/10 shooting before leaving the game early due to an ankle injury.

Jason Cadee did it all with 15 points, eight boards and eight assists, and DJ Mitchell contributed 10 points and five rebounds.

Another notable mention was Harry Froling who played integral minutes particularly late in the game, finishing with nine points and 13 rebounds.

For Perth, Bryce Cotton delivered 30 points to go with five rebounds and Brady Manek had  17 points and seven rebounds.

It was basket for basket early on until Nathan Sobey and Jason Cadee both knocked down triples for the Bullets to give the home team the 12-6 edge. However, Perth immediately responded with back-to-back threes through Bryce Cotton and Brady Manek to level things up.

It continued to be largely bucket for bucket with Brisbane leading 27-25 by quarter-time after a late score at either end through Rasmus Bach for the Bullets and Mitch Norton for the Wildcats.

The teams continued to trade the lead early in the second after three-pointers to Todd Blanchfield and Tyler Johnson before Manek drained a couple in-a-row for Perth to give the visitors a four-point edge.

Brisbane held tight and didn’t let the lead get too far away, thanks to Sobey who was on his way to 12 points. The Bullets trailed 52-47 at half time.

The Bullets came out strong in the third quarter to quicky eradicate that five-point deficit. A couple of three’s to Krebs then put the home team out to their own five-point lead, and they held that margin by three quarter-time.

DJ Mitchell connected from beyond the arc to put the Bullets out to a six-point edge to start the fourth. Cadee then pushed it out to eight and Perth were forced into a timeout.

Harry Froling scored inside soon after the timeout to make it a 10-point ball game but the Wildcats hit back with triples to bring the lead back. With two minutes to go in regulation, the scores were level. From there, it was a dramatic last two minutes but ultimately neither team could be separated.

It was then all the Bullets to start overtime with a bucket to Johnson and free-throws to Sobey and Froling. Cotton got back to the free throw line and knocked down 1/3. Sobey then stretched the lead to six with two more at the stripe before the Bullets iced the win with a Sobey triple to the delight of the Nissan Arena crowd.

The Bullets will be back at home to host the Tasmania JackJumpers this Sunday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 9

BRISBANE BULLETS 106 (Sobey 28, Johnson 18, Krebs 18)

PERTH WILDCATS 95 (Cotton 30, Manek 17, Thomas 13) 

BOX SCORE

TICKETS FOR BULLETS VS JACKJUMPERS HERE.