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PERTH Wildcats reinforced their standing as the NBL's pre-eminent club when they claimed their record seventh preseason piece of silverware by winning the inaugural Loggins-Bruton Cup.

It will sit alongside a record five NBL championships and comes from the league's 17 recognised preseason tournaments.

The 'Cats started it all in 1987 when they won the first K-Mart Classic, also in Sydney and with a strong connection to this year's Cup, considering Cal Bruton was in his first season as Perth playing-coach.

The Wildcats, who had never played finals before '87, used that as the launch pad to reach the NBL Grand Final that year where they lost to another significant figure, Leroy Loggins and his Brisbane Bullets.

Perth has never missed the post-season since, in itself a record few pro sporting teams in any code can match or rival.

And the club's new NBA-bound import, James Ennis, capped it all off by winning the Ray Borner Medal as Blitz MVP.

The Wildcats now have won the past four preseason tournaments - the Blitz, the PSST, the Sunshine Challenge, the second of the Top End Challenges - and Ennis' win also gave them another medallist.

Last year Shawn Redhage won the Chuck Harmison "Do we still have a Ray Borner Medal? I don't think anyone remembers that. You sure it wasn't just a one-off?" Medal as the PSST Grand Final MVP.

Matt Knight scored one in Darwin too. And my memory is suspect here but I think Kevin Lisch picked up the MVP when Perth beat Sydney in the final in Brisbane a couple of years back.

But not only doth Perth's Cup runneth over, but so too the warriors from the 'Gong, who had to go overtime to see off Melbourne in the Blitz's final contest!

 

BLITZEN ONE LAST TIME 

SYDNEY needed to win at least three quarters and the game against Cairns to catch Perth's premiership points tally of 15.5 so the crowd at NSISC went pretty crazy when Jesse Sanders sank a desperate fall-away baseline jumper to save the first period 24-24.

Brad Hill was playing out of his skull and going head-to-head with an equally unconscious Stevie Weigh - both, curiously, ex-Adelaide 36ers swingmen - and playing like 3-men of the future. Who knew?

The second quarter brought an even bigger roar from Kings fans - and disgust from the Taipans - when Charles Carmouche hit a three at the buzzer to make it 49-48 and give them the first Blitz point they so badly needed.

But that was the end of the Blitz Bliss for Sydney. Coach Shane Heal copped a third quarter technical with 2:25 left and the scores locked 62-62 when he went on too long about a non-call at Sydney's end.

He might have had a case too but once ref Michael Aylen explained why no call had been made and Heal hit him with not one but two quite loud serves of "bull$#!+" the tech was inevitable.

The free throws and possession turned 62-62 into 67-62 by the 2:12 mark and on to 71-62 before a consolation three on the bell.

(At least this year Heal copped a tech in the last game, not the first!)

Hill went on to finish with a career-high 42 points while Weigh led Cairns to a 99-91 victory with a perfect 11-of-11 from the floor, plus 11 rebounds. On a scale of 1-to-10, yes, his game was an 11.

CAIRNS TAIPANS 99 (Weigh 27, Tragardh 18, Young 17, Wilson 10; Weigh 11 rebs; McCamey, Gliddon 4 assts) d SYDNEY KINGS 91 (Hill 42, Carmouche 18, Sanders 13; Sanders 12 rebs; Sanders 6 assts).

CHRIS Goulding's right ankle in plaster and the young star on crutches was a sight no-one wanted to see. He has an MRI tomorrow in Melbourne but plaster?

That doesn’t look too good.

The game against Wollongong though was a humdinger.

Steve Dennis was the early story in this game when he not once, but twice in succession drove to the hoop from the left wing, producing several wicked ankle-breaking shake-and-bake shifts which left him a clear lane and the bodies of stranded Hawks littered along the pathway.

And no, it wasn’t because by today players were playing D like cones. Quite the contrary. Just as the Taipans-Kings game was probably the first where everyone was finally on the same page re interpretations, so too the Hawks-Tigers game to close the Blitz.

Mark Worthington’s free throws gave Melbourne a 30-29 buffer with 7.3 seconds left in the first, Melbourne needing all seven points on offer, plus a 21-point win to catch Perth and take the Cup off the Wildcats.

Gordie McLeod called timeout and ran a play which saw Dave Gruber get to the basket where, on Day 1 of the Blitz, he would subsequently have been at the foul-line. But no call today and the Tigers have a point for the quarter.

From there though, the second quarter was all Wollongong in a 31-13 extravaganza for a 60-43 halftime lead and the Cup in Perth’s hands.

The third quarter saw the Tigers battling back and when Tom Greer tipped in a Dennis miss with half a period to play, Melbourne had hit the lead, 80-79.

It was nail-biting stuff to the finish, Nate Tomlinson sinking a huge three to tie it 91-91 near the end of regulation.

When Oscar Forman’s drive missed, we were headed to overtime which the Tigers started much more crisply to lead 98-93.

Larry Davidson’s triple brought the game back to a knife’s edge and two pressure free throws by Dom Cooks made it 98-98 with 33.4 seconds left.

Melbourne ran down the clock and Tomlinson drove, only to be stripped of the ball by Rotnei Clarke, with just enough time for the Hawks to pull it off.

The winning shot fell to Cooks but his hurried attempt ricocheted out to Clarke outside the arc to the right of the top of the key and he let fly with precisely one second on the game-clock.

Swish and the Hawks snatch the win 101-98.

Brilliant to watch and to savor.

WOLLONGONG HAWKS 101 (Clarke 25, Davidson 22, Demos 20, Forman 14, Coenraad 11; Coenraad 16 rebs; Cooks, Coenraad 3 assts) d MELBOURNE TIGERS 98 (Dennis 30, Tomlinson 20, Greer 13, Morrison, Ballinger 12; Worthington 13 rebs; Dennis 5 assts) in overtime.

 

FINAL BLITZ TABLE

1 Perth 15.5; 2 Cairns 14.5; 3 Adelaide 12.5; 4 Townsville 12; 5 Sydney 11.5; 6 Melbourne 11.5; 7 Wollongong 4; 8 New Zealand 2.5

WHAT DID WE LEARN?

*THAT it's a sad sight to see a star on crutches before the season is about to start and to see Tigers star Chris Goulding with his right foot in plaster today was a tragedy for him, Melbourne and the league.*

*THAT Adam “Bollinger” still has champagne basketball in him.*

*THAT one day, hard-working, hustling Tommy Greer might understand why he so consistently finds himself open from range before shooting. (39% career FG, 30% on 3s… Hustle plays Tommy. Hustle plays. That's your bread&butter.)*

*THAT NBL legends Wayne McDaniel, Curt Forrester, Bruce Bolden, Steve Carfino, Ben Knight – to name a few – were in the house. The last time I saw Wayne was on the video screen at The Batman ride at MovieWorld on the Gold Coast. I hear he is in The Sapphires too.*

*THAT uniform supplier AND1 has outshone itself with approximately one set of new uniforms not from the same template as all the others.*

*THAT Brad Hill will have a better season if he can now get to the hoop without meeting undue bumping and jostling en route.*

*THAT Gordie McLeod must love Rotnei Clarke because he is a clone of the Hawks coach when he was a player. “No, Rotnei can shoot,” Gordie said. Don’t let the Field Marshall fool you. Rotnei = Gordie.*

*THAT I can go a whole week without mentioning Larry Davidson’s latest haircut. (But only because it makes him look as if he might skin me if I comment.)*

*THAT Perth has already spoken with former Kings championship-winner and league MVP Matt Nielsen (retired and now living in Perth) about filling in for the injured Matt Knight for 6-10 weeks but his body is “done” and he won’t be playing again.*

*THAT the 2013-14 import crop is the first in a long, long time which not only ups the quality of our foreign players but also hasn’t spat out a single one you might be tempted to identify as “he’ll get cut”.*

*THAT by today, the officiating had it right and it showed. The average score last season by an NBL team was 75.9 points per game. At the Blitz it was 91.9 – up 16 points. The new day hath begun!*

 

SHIELD DEAL

Apparently, Dandenong won the "big dance" at the WNBL's second official preseason tournament at Dandenong and now has a brand spanking new Spring Shield to hang in its clubrooms.

Look for Alice Kunek to have a big year.

The Shield finale went like this:

WEST COAST WAVES 73 (Edmondson 23, Smith 12; Wallbutton 13 rebs; Wallbutton 4 assts) d VICTORIA SELECT 66 (Wehrung 21, Bontempelli 13, Rogers 12; Turner 10 rebs; Probst 3 assts).

TOWNSVILLE FIRE 81 (Standish, Wilson 19, Mangakahia, Cumming, Newley 11; Wilson 9 rebs; Newley 7 assts) d SYDNEY FLAMES 65 (Scheer 14, Ebzery 12, Poto, Samuels 10; Kennedy 9 rebs; Ebzery 7 assts).

MELBOURNE BOOMERS 71 (Madgen 18, Hegge, Allen 13; Allen 11 rebs; Romeo 3 assts) d CANBERRA CAPITALS 66 (Mijovic, Bibby 20; Bishop 11 rebs; Wilson 2 assts).

BENDIGO SPIRIT 71 (Richards 26, Blicavs, Wilson 15; Richards 8 rebs; Wilson 6 assts) d ADELAIDE LIGHTNING 47 (Hodges 11; Lewis 7 rebs; Foley, Mansfield 3 assts).

DANDENONG RANGERS 70 (Kunek 13, Ardossi, Downie 11; Scherf 9 rebs; Scherf 3 assts) d LOGAN THUNDER 58 (Zavecz 15, Cunningham 14; Zavecz 8 rebs; Donnelly 4 assts).