New Gold Coast import Adris Deleon inspired the Blaze to a 107-92 NBL annihilation of competition favourite Perth on Saturday night.
Playing in front of his new home crowd, Deleon exploded to life with 21 points - 18 in the first half - that included eight assists, five rebounds, a steal and an incredible block against Matt Knight despite giving away 25cm in height.
Where Deleon provided the flash, Anthony Petrie (19 points, six rebounds) offered the grit for the Blaze just 10 days after fearing he had re-injured the Achilles tendon that cost him all of last season.
Gold Coast's Australian representative Mark Worthington (22 points) finished as the game's top scorer as well as holding Boomers team-mate Shawn Redhage to just 10 points in an intriguing battle.
For Perth, big men Knight (18 points) and Luke Nevill (22) were damaging in the paint, while NBL player of the month Kevin Lisch bagged 19 points.
Gold Coast took an early 16-13 advantage, but it was the Wildcats who went to the first change ahead after a five-point run to close the quarter.
The Blaze streaked away early in the second term with five quick-fire points from Worthington and a key block on Jesse Wagstaff.
Wildcat Drew Williamson's frustrations with Deleon led to a heavy unsportsmanlike foul, with the import calmly slotting the free throws.
Seconds later he dropped another triple to give the Blaze a 14-point lead.
Nevill and Knight engineered a seven-point Perth run to cut the lead to five.
But it was Deleon again who broke Perth's momentum with a slick dish off to Chris Goulding, with his three-pointer giving the Blaze a 55-49 half-time lead.
The lead ballooned to 14 as James Harvey piled on eight quick points - including the basket that made him just the fourth player in NBL history to reach 5,000 points - and young guns Jason Cadee and Goulding hit three-pointers.
Petrie then hit a buzzer-beating triple to close the third term which pushed the lead out to 15, a mountain too large to climb for Perth.
AAP
Tags: nbl, basketball, sport, broadbeach-4218, qld, perth-6000, wa, australia First posted November 12, 2011 21:51:00
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