Perth Wildcats beat New Zealand Breakers in NBL Blitz as Bryce Cotton stars and Daniel Moldovan talks titles

Prominent agent Daniel Moldovan has declared Perth Wildcats have no weaknesses in their roster and should start the season as one of the championship favourites as they stormed back from 15 points down to beat New Zealand Breakers in the NBL Blitz. Bryce Cotton continued his brilliant form with 32 points, including 16 in the final quarter, and Keanu Pinder had a massive day with 25 points and eight rebounds as the Wildcats won 108-102. The fightback was even more impressive given they played three games in Japan last week. Their victory came despite Head Coach John Rillie being ejected after the Wildcats’ bench conceded three technical fouls during throughout the day. Perth trailed by one point when he was thrown out when the team reacted to referees missing a clear eight-second back court violation inside the last two minutes. Assistant coach Aaron Young steered the team home and maintained their undefeated record in the pre-season Moldovan, who coaches some of the NBL’s biggest names along with Australian NBA talent said the Wildcats looked ominous. “They are loaded,” he said on the broadcast. “I watched the Japanese games and I do not see a weakness at any of the five positions on this roster. Danny Mills has done an unbelievable job this year. They are two-deep at every single position. “I don’t envy John Rillie at all in what his job is going to be. They, to me, along with Sydney might be the early final favourites.” Moldovan was also full of praise for youngster Ben Henshall who scored 10 points after impressing on the Japanese tour. He said NBA scouts were keeping a close eye on the sharpshooter. Captain Jesse Wagstaff sat out the match but import Dylan Windler made his first appearance in a Wildcats jersey. He came off the bench, scored nine points and won three rebounds, including two that were offensive, from nearly 13 minutes on the court. Cotton’s effort came after he scored 36 points against Yokohama but he said the credit needed to go to Henshall, Izan Alamansa, Kristian Doolittle, Hyrum Harris and Elijah Pepper for getting the team back into the contest early in the final period. “For us, the guys that came in and started the fourth quarter, they’re the ones who set the tone and got the game back within reach. Once we came back in, we wanted to pick up where they left off. They did a tremendous job of getting us back in the game,” Cotton said.