Perth needed a win, and it needed a way to earn one without simply waiting for the three-pointers to fall. The Wildcats beat Tasmania 96–88 at RAC Arena on Thursday 12 November, snapping a four-game losing streak with a second-half response that turned a five-point half-time deficit into an eight-point victory. Tasmania had arrived with consecutive wins and plenty of confidence. Perth's answer was to attack the middle of the floor and find scoring from several places rather than leaning on one star. The NBL's official Perth results record the Round 9 final.
The JackJumpers had the better of the opening half. They led 21–19 at quarter-time and 48–43 at the main break, having pushed their advantage as far as nine points during the second term. That's exactly the kind of position in which Perth's recent losses could have weighed on the contest. Instead, the Wildcats made the third quarter their turning point, outscoring Tasmania 26–16 to lead 69–64 with ten minutes remaining. The eight-point final margin understates how important that swing was: it gave Perth control of the scoreboard before the last quarter became a contest of composure.
The most revealing stretch came late in the third. Tasmania still led 64–62 with under two minutes remaining, but Brandon Knight's earlier floater had already shown Perth could create something inside the arc. Angus Brandt then tied the game with a lay-up. Dylan Windler followed by drawing a three-shot foul and making all three free throws, putting Perth ahead 67–64 before adding another basket on the final possession of the quarter. A 12–0 run stretching into the fourth gave the Wildcats a cushion they hadn't enjoyed in the first half. The NBL-feed match timeline captures the sequence.
Perth's scoring balance was central to the recovery. With just over five minutes remaining, Windler, Kristian Doolittle and Knight had each reached 16 points. Windler had also collected eight rebounds by that stage, while Doolittle had five assists and Knight five. Brandt had made all five of his field-goal attempts for ten points. It's a useful combination for a team that's struggled to turn good stretches into wins: a forward creating, a wing finishing and a guard adding scoring without having to dominate every possession.
The bench made its presence felt, too. At that same mid-fourth-quarter checkpoint, Perth's reserves had outscored Tasmania's 27–7. Knight's scoring and Brandt's work around the basket gave the Wildcats genuine production beyond their main creators. Perth had also scored 58 points in the paint to Tasmania's 47 at that point. Those are in-game figures rather than final box-score totals, but they explain the shape of the comeback: Perth found reliable two-point opportunities while forcing Tasmania to keep defending through multiple contributions.
Tasmania didn't go away quietly. Josh Bannan and Will Magnay had both reached 15 points and ten rebounds by midway through the final term, while Taran Armstrong had six assists. Dakota Mathias had knocked down four threes. The JackJumpers had enough interior presence and outside shooting to lead for long stretches, yet their attack lost its rhythm as Perth tightened the game in the third. A team that had been ahead by nine was suddenly chasing a deficit, and Perth's varied scoring made that a difficult reversal to engineer.
There was a practical edge to this result for both clubs. Perth had lost to Sydney, Illawarra, Brisbane and Cairns in succession after its one-point win over Melbourne United on 23 October. Thursday's victory stopped that slide before Saturday's home meeting with Illawarra. Tasmania, meanwhile, must regroup for Sunday's trip to Brisbane. The NBL's pre-match team notes had framed this as a meeting between a struggling host and a side in strong form. The result flipped that narrative without requiring a spectacular individual scoring explosion.
For Perth, the encouraging part isn't just getting to 96 points. It's how those points arrived when the match threatened to slip away: a stronger third quarter, an active bench, inside finishes and enough shared responsibility to keep Tasmania from loading up on a single threat. The Wildcats still have work ahead, but Thursday gave them a better blueprint than another desperate shootout. They didn't merely break a losing streak; they showed how to change the course of a game that was heading in the wrong direction.
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