Wildcats crush 36ers on Blitz Day 4

The Perth Wildcats crushed the Adelaide 36ers on day four of the NBL Blitz by 32 points.

But which players stood out?

Game 7: Tasmania JackJumpers 92-85 New Zealand Breakers

What was a one-sided first half in favour of the JackJumpers, turned into a respectable seven-point loss for the Breakers.

Tasmania had a 29-12 point second quarter, blowing out the half-time lead to 19, but New Zealand turned on in the second half, winning the final two terms (26-19 / 24-19).

Jordon Crawford had 18 points, five rebounds, six assists and a steal, leading the JJs to victory with starting power forward Jack McVeigh top-scoring with 19 points.

Parker Jackson-Cartwright continued to impress in the pre-season for the Breakers. In his 26 minutes, the import point guard had 16 points, five rebounds and five assists.

Zylan Cheatham’s high-flying play resumed with a 14-point double-double, including a reverse alley-oop dunk.

Sharpshooter Cam Gliddon led the Breakers in scoring off the bench with 17 points.

Game 8: Perth Wildcats 112-80 Adelaide 36ers

The Wildcats shot the lights out in the first quarter of tonight’s game, leading the game 21-2 at one point in the term. Finishing the quarter with a 26-point lead, the 36ers could not catch up to Perth for the remainder of the match.

For Perth, it was their bench unit that had the most court time due to the massive first-quarter blowout.

Development player Michael Harris top scored in the game with 18 points, shooting 50 per cent from the field and 3/7 from beyond the arc.

The next best was ‘masked’ Keanu Pinder and young gun Ben Henshall with 17 each. Pinder with four rebounds, three assists and four stocks in 16 minutes, and Henshall had four rebounds, three assists and two steals in 18.

Even though his stats didn’t stand out, one of Perth’s MVPs of the game was Hyrum Harris. The Tall Black was everywhere in his 19 minutes on the floor.

He won’t score a whole bunch of points in front of the Red Army, but he fills the void left by Greg Hire after he retired as a pure hustling forward who can and will guard anyone the coach wants.

Trentyn Flowers, whose name sounds like somebody who wants to swear but says something else, had a much better game for the 36ers than his horror show against the Breakers and PJC.

The next star had 11 points, six rebounds and three assists but his weakness in causing easy turnovers did show its ugly head again, having four. The 36ers as a team did no better, having 21 overall.

Adelaide has 99 problems but ‘Ice’ ain’t one.

Isaac Humphries had 14 points – having six of their first eight points – five rebounds and three blocks. He was one of the only Adelaide players who acted with any real aggression and desire on the court.

Tomorrow will see the first and only triple header of the Blitz.

In the afternoon, Taran Armstrong’s Cairns Taipans will face Mitch Creek’s SEM Phoenix (1pm AEST) and Rocco Zikarsky’s Brisbane Bullets play AJ Johnson’s Illawarra Hawks (3:30pm AEST).

And at night, Chris Goulding’s Melbourne United take on Jaylen Adams’ Sydney Kings (7:30pm AEST).