The Perth Wildcats claimed a clean sweep of their NBL series against the New Zealand Breakers with a dominant 97-72 win at Perth Arena on Friday.
It was the first time the Wildcats have clean swept a series against the Breakers since 2006/07. The Breakers swept the series in 2008/09.
The Breakers lost control of their first possession and it didn't get any prettier from there.
Mika Vukona (10 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists) was benched with just under five minutes remaining in the first term after committing two fouls - both on Wildcats import James Ennis, who threw down one of the dunks of the season over Casey Frank.
The Breakers had five fouls before the Wildcats had even caught the attention of the referees and the Wildcats took full advantage, making seven of their nine free throws on their way to a 13-point quarter time lead.
"We talked all week about getting a good start," Breakers coach Dean Vickerman said.
"And in most games when we've played the Wildcats they've built an early margin and we've been able to make our runs at different times, but tonight was a combination of a lot of fouls in the first quarter and we didn't really stick to scouts."
In front of a packed house, where the Wildcats opened up the fourth level for just the second time, Jermaine Beal was hot from every scoring zone as he racked up 19 points, six rebounds and four assists.
The long bombs from three-point territory were the icing on the cake for some spectacular and blanketing defensive work from teammates Ennis and Shawn Redhage (24 points, 67 per cent field goals).
Beal had 15 points at half-time and Redhage 16 as the home side stopped the visitors from gaining any offensive momentum and guided the Cats to a 20-point half-time lead.
"When a person is hot you want them to get good shots," Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson said about his team's strong shooting performance.
"Jermaine got hot there for a period but there were some good screens on transition. You need your teammates working for you to get the good shots and to get the ball in the right position and I thought we played smart and we are improving in that area."
For every person who attended the game between these rivals, $1 was going to victims of the Perth Hills bushfires - and that total reached an impressive $13,206.
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