Tigers can't stop Wildcats' perfect start

Updated October 21, 2012 20:11:53

Perth continued its unbeaten start to the NBL season with a 74-65 road victory over winless Melbourne in the Victorian capital on Sunday.

The Tigers (0-3) had hoped to turn things around in their home opener, but the Wildcats had the answers behind guard Kevin Lisch (16 points) and centre Matt Knight (14 points, eight rebounds).

Import pair Seth Scott (16 points, nine rebounds) and Kevin Braswell (18 points) led the Tigers after Chris Goulding (16) cooled from a hot start.

The Tigers had their chances but they were undone by 25 turnovers and their poor performance on the boards, allowing Perth 15 offensive rebounds.

Wildcats coach Rob Beveridge was thrilled with his team's 3-0 start, admitting in his heart of hearts he had not considered it likely.

"Not at all," Beveridge said.

"Personally, I would have been pleased if we started with three wins from five games."

Later, Wollongong dominated Townsville 84-66 on Sunday to continue their unlikely perfect start to the NBL season.

The Hawks, who were second-bottom last season, led by 15 at half-time and never let the Crocs into the game.

Dave Gruber starred for the Hawks with 14 points, four rebounds and two blocks and Adris Deleon had a team-high 15 points.

Peter Crawford led Townsville with 18 points.

"The pleasing thing was the disruption, I thought the guys did a real good job defensively," Hawks coach Gordie McLeod said.

AAP

Tags: nbl, basketball, sport, melbourne-3000, vic, perth-6000, wa, australia

First posted October 21, 2012 17:42:24

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Perth Wheelcats start their season on a roll

One of WA's most successful sporting teams begins their season this weekend - The Perth Wheelcats.

Western Australia's wheelchair basketball competition is a force to be reckoned with in the national competition with the Wheelcats winning the last five consecutive national league competitions.

Wheelcats team captain Justin Eveson, who also happens to be the number one ranked wheelchair basketballer in the world, spoke to 720's Alex Hyman before their first game for the season this weekend.

"We've got one of the better leagues in Australia here; it's renowned around the world for producing some pretty good players."

ABC's Alex Hyman had an attempt at the sport, but needs a lot of practice and was obviously no match for the Wheelcats.

"There is a lot of skill involved. You've got to control the wheelchair, which is a specialist piece of sport equipment, and control the ball while the other team is trying to steal it off you."

Eveson also plays for the Australian wheelchair basketball team, which is the number one team in the world at the moment, and his passion for basketball started at a young age.

"I'd always played basketball as a kid before I had my accident. Once I recovered from that - I had a lower leg amputation - I got involved in wheelchair sports and through that I continued my passion for wheelchair sports."

The sport is always after more public interest and the media are helping by getting on board with coverage.

"It's getting bigger and bigger every year. ABC really got on board with the Paralympics, we've got a lot of radio stations and community news that are involved with us but we really want to ramp that up," Mr Eveson said.

"So for anyone that's got a bit of an interest outside of AFL football then we'd love to have you come down."

The Wheelcats season starts this Saturday at the Herb Graham Centre, 27 Chesterfield Road, Mirrabooka.

Tipoff is at 7pm so get along a bit earlier and support this fantastic team.

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