Adelaide 36ers star Bryce Cotton scored 36 points to inflict 11-point defeat over Perth Wildcats in NBL

Bryce Cotton has given the Red Army a dose of Christmas heartache, with a dominant 36-point display helping Adelaide 36ers to beat Perth Wildcats by 11 points on Sunday. And the Wildcats have major injury concerns from the game with import David Duke suffering an ugly elbow injury early in the match and facing uncertainty over when he will be available to play again. It was the third time Cotton had played against the Wildcats and he had been influential in both previous matches. This time he produced 36 points, including six three-pointers and he also had seven assists to lift the ladder leaders to a 95-84 victory at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre. The Wildcats started brilliantly and surged to a 14-point lead midway through the first quarter. Their energy was high and their pressure was intense as they gave the home team plenty to be concerned about. Cotton hadn’t scored when the Wildcats led 23-9 but once he got his game going, the contest changed. He helped to reduce the deficit to nine points by quarter-time and then made a superb start to the second period which boosted the confidence of his teammates. Adelaide took the lead halfway through the second quarter before the Wildcats steadied and took a three-point lead into half-time. Cotton had 14 points and loomed as the biggest danger on the court given Duke was sitting on the bench icing his elbow. Perth had three players with double-figure points tallies at half-time with Kristian Doolittle (11), Jo Lual-Acuil (11) and Dylan Windler (10) having an impact. But the 36ers took over during the third quarter. Perth’s scoring dried up, and they managed only nine points for the period, while Adelaide had no trouble putting points on the board. They scored the last 14 points of the quarter, won the third term 29-9 and led by 17 points with one quarter remaining. Adelaide famously fought back from 21 points down against Perth at RAC Arena earlier this month and now it was up to the Wildcats to find a way to mount the comeback. But the 36ers extended the lead to 21 points with just under eight minutes remaining and that was too big a gap for them to recover from. Doolittle top scored for Perth with 18 points but Windler and Lual-Acuil did not add to their half-time tallies. Flynn Cameron, who scored the winning basket against the Wildcats at RAC Arena, maintained his great form with 17 points.