Prather, Zikarsky bright Bullets spots in Perth

The Brisbane Bullets faced a tough night in Perth, falling 117-89 to the Wildcats on Friday. Despite the result, there were promising highlights, including an impressive performance from Casey Prather, who scored 31 points, and a strong showing from Rocco Zikarsky in his starting role.

Despite coming off a win at home to the Wildcats almost two weeks ago by 21 points with James Batemon scoring 51 on his own, it was a wounded Bullets squad that made the trip west for the Friday night NBL match up coming out of the FIBA international window.

Jarred Bairstow (ankle), Deng Adel (wrist), Tohi Smith-Milner (concussion) and Josh Bannan (ankle) all were ruled out and didn’t make the trip, but then things got worse over the last 24 hours with the team in Perth.

Tyrell Harrison was the first to be felled by a bout of food poisoning ruling him out of the game and while everyone else was able to play, several other members of the team and coaching staff were under the weather.

The Bullets fought hard but couldn’t overcome a determined Wildcats team that delivered a strong, four-quarter performance.

It wasn’t without some positive aspects including Zikarsky making the most of his first start with 13 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots on 6/9 shooting.

Then there was Prather back on his former home floor who produced 31 points, seven rebounds and three assists on 11/15 shooting from the floor and 4/6 from downtown.

Kye Savage also scored his first NBL points to have three along with an assist while Tristan Devers also came on to score two points and to have a rebound and steal in his eight minutes, and Josh Kunen battled hard for two points and three rebounds in 13 minutes.

Keandre Cook also had 12 points, three rebounds and two steals, Isaac White 10 points and four boards, Batemon 10 points, and Mitch Norton six points and four assists.

With Tyrell Harrison falling ill over the last 24 hours while over in Perth, Rocco Zikarsky earned his first career start with the Bullets and showed exciting signs early with a couple of quick buckets including a dunk.

Import trio Casey Prather, Keandre Cook and James Batemon all combined for a 6-2 run midway through the first quarter too to tie scores up, but the Wildcats pulled away to be leading by seven at the end of one.

Batemon and Prather both hit three-pointers early in the second term for the Bullets and the visitors were doing well to stay in touch until Perth finished the first half with an 11-2 run to go into the half-time break leading 63-46.

That was despite 15 points in the first half from Prather against the team he won two championships with but things for the team didn’t get a whole lot better throughout the second half.

There were some silver linings including consecutive plays from Zikarsky where he had a huge block on Keanu Pinder up one end and then threw down a dunk up the other.

Kye Savage also scored his first NBL point in the third quarter but Perth still managed to extend that lead out to 32 by three quarter-time.

The Bullets did fight the game out and it was energy provided from Savage, Tristan Devers and Josh Kunen that helped with that along with Prather and Zikarsky helping them to outscore the Wildcats 30 points to 26.

The Bullets now have a full week ahead of hosting the Adelaide 36ers next Friday night back at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2024/25

BRISBANE BULLETS 89 (Prather 31, Zikarsky 13, Cook 12)

PERTH WILDCATS 117 (Doolittle 17, Windler 15, Pepper 14)

BOX SCORE