Knight back on record day for wildcats

Shayne HopeThe West Australian Star centre Matt Knight returned from a long injury lay-off as the Perth Wildcats racked up a seventh successive win on Thursday night, beating Cairns 75-68 at

Perth Arena. Knight, named in the All-NBL first team last season, missed the first six games after damaging cartilage in his right ankle during the pre-season. He played 18 minutes off the

bench and got through unscathed in a significant development for the Wildcats’ championship bid. Coach Trevor Gleeson conceded it could take more than a month for Knight to find peak

fitness, but was pleased with his progress. “He needed to get through that,” Gleeson said. “The rest of them have had six or seven pre-season games and Matt hasn’t had that fortune. “That’s

his first game since game two of the grand final series last year, so it’s taken a while to get him back, but it’s fantastic to have him.” Knight would have played fewer minutes than he did,

had it not been for Tom Jervis and Shawn Redhage finding themselves in foul trouble. Gleeson will continue to take a cautious approach with Knight in Sunday’s game away to Wollongong. “The

good thing is we’ve got three days before we play,” Gleeson said. “That’s a good little turnaround for us, so it gives us time to recover tomorrow and make sure he’s ok.” Two first-quarter

steals by Wildcats captain Damian Martin led to huge dunks by American star James Ennis, who top-scored with 22 points and had a team-high seven rebounds. Fellow import Jermaine Beal was

good early but went quiet, finishing 13 points, while Martin had 12. Former Wildcat Alex Loughton (14 points) and import Demetri McCamey (13) were Cairns’ best, while dangerous guard Jamar

Wilson was held to just four points. The Taipans scored the first seven points of the final quarter to tie the game before Martin and Redhage settled the home side with a pair of triples. It

became a scrap late as a desperate Cairns deliberately fouled their opponents, but they couldn’t fight their way back into the contest. The result moved the Wildcats to a 7-0 record and set

a new mark for the club’s best ever start to a season. “It’s not something that we talked about at all in the build-up, but we certainly mentioned it after the game,” Gleeson said. “It’s

these guys’ record. There’s a rich history with the Wildcats with what they’ve done and all the championships, now this is our time to make a little bit of a footprint in the history books.”

It was also a personal record for Gleeson, whose longest NBL winning streak as a coach was six in his first season with Townsville in 2006. GET THE LATEST NEWS FROM THEWEST.COM.AU IN YOUR

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