Johnston’s energy drives Kings to big win over Wildcats

Result: Sydney Kings 102 Perth Wildcats 81

Stats that matter: Kings 24 fastbreak points; Kings 61 points in the paint; Kings 32 bench points; Reboundcount Kings 48 Wildcats 37

Kings MVP: TorreyCraig was outstanding all night, but his most important play might have beenwhen he dove into the Perth bench to try and save a loose ball, setting a greatexample of hustle and tenacity for his teammates.

Turning Point: The Kings never trailed in the ballgame buttook control early thanks to a 10-0 first quarter run.

The game was over when: A late fourthquarter period from the purple and gold put the result beyond doubt.

Trending in the right direction: After a roughnight in Canberra, the Kings bench really came to the fore on Saturday.

“This is my city!”

So yelled SydneyKings backup guard Will Johnston after his audacious banked-in triple at the endof the third quarter and a host of tremendous plays helped the purple and goldto an excellent 102-81 bounce back win over the Perth Wildcats on Saturdaynight at Afterpay Arena.

Johnston (17points, two rebounds, two assists) electrified the 8,032 in attendance with adisplay of boundless energy, hustle, and quality shotmaking, giving his team agenuine boost after they had dropped their past two games.

In the final 2:11of the contest, Will hit a pull-up three pointer, went to the basket for adeuce after a pretty hesitation move, found Xavier Cooks for a power jam andhad a steal and lay-up as the Kings overwhelmed the visitors, scoring the finalnine points in just 29 seconds, capped by a blocked shot and then a banked-intriple from the halfcourt line at the buzzer by Torrey Craig (26 points, 12rebounds).

Craig wassensational and a worthy MVP on the night, but it was Will Johnston who wowedthe fans, particularly in the fourth quarter, keying a victory that takesSydney to 4-2 on the season with a significant stretch of road games coming up.

“I knew coming inthat he was going to be a good player,” Sydney Kings Head Coach Brian Goorjiansaid of Johnston in the post-game press conference.

“I think a bigaspect is the work ethic. Every time you look at Instagram, he’s somewhereshooting baskets in the middle of the night and I’m like “aren’t you tired?”

“Whatever happens,he’s fearless. He brings a lot of energy to it, in the locker room, on thecourt, and on the day-to-day.

“He’s been ajewel.”

Sydney placed fiveplayers in double-figure scoring on a night where a big key to victory wasgenerating as much pace as possible. Right from tipoff, there was a real focusfor the group to push it down the Wildcats’ throat as quickly as possible, astrategy that paid great dividends.

“(The Wildcats)send five guys to the glass and they are a great offensive rebounding team, soif we could get the glass, we felt like we could run on them,” Coach Goorjiansaid.

“Our best thing ispace, and it was definitely a focus.”

Sydney jumped outto a 20-8 lead midway through the first quarter courtesy of a 10-0 run cappedby a three from Kendric Davis (23 points, four rebounds, eight assists), andalthough an undermanned Perth – who were missing frontcourt starters KristianDoolittle and Jo Lual-Acuil Jr due to injury – came back hard, the Kingsresponded with seven straight points to close the period with a 31-21advantage.

That run balloonedto 14 consecutive points and at that stage it looked like the Kings were goingto run the Wildcats right out of the building.

To their credit,Perth showed heart to hang in there, and a late 15-4 run from the visitors sawthem trail 52-43 at the main break.

And there were afew nerves for the home fans early in the third quarter as the Wildcats chargedout of the rooms with a purpose and took it to a suddenly sloppy Kings, butthat man Craig was there to calm everything down with six consecutive pointsincluding a savage putback dunk to regain a measure of control for his team.

Threes to KD andthe hyper-efficient Makuach Maluach (16 points, 7/9 FG) pushed the margin outfurther and Will Johnston’s buzzer beater had Sydney turning for home up 76-63.

After strugglingfrom long distance for much of the contest, Sydney suddenly caught fire fromthe outside, and both Maluach and Johnston knocked down early triples in thefourth to blow the margin out to 17, 84-67.

Perth had one finalrun in them, and nine straight from the Wildcats helped them to reduce Sydney’slead to just seven points with five minutes remaining.

But the purple andgold would not be denied this night, and they put the Wildcats to bed with anexplosive onslaught that had them dancing in the aisles at Afterpay Arena.

Next up for thedefending champions is a Round 6 matchup in Wollongong against arch rivalsIllawarra Hawks at the WIN Entertainment Centre next Thursday 22 October at7:30pm. Head to Ticketmaster for tickets. TheKings close out Round 6 at John Cain Arena on Sunday 25 October at 5:00pm witha blockbuster matchup against Melbourne United.

SYDNEY KINGS 102 (Craig 26, Davis 23, Johnston 17)
PERTH WILDCATS 81 (Windler 19, Whitt 15, Dell’Orso 13) at Afterpay Arena.
CROWD: 8.032

BOXSCORE

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