Perth Wildcats star Bryce Cotton held to 13 points as historic scoring streak ends in huge loss to Illawarra

Illawarra have played the role of Christmas Grinch and ended Bryce Cotton’s run of consecutive 40-point games while blowing the Perth Wildcats away in Wollongong.

Wearing a special ugly sweater Christmas themed uniform, the Hawks thrashed the Wildcats 120-88 and kept Cotton to just 13 points.

All eyes were on Cotton to see if he could join Andrew Gaze in 1987 and Al Green from 1984 as the only people to score 40 points across five consecutive NBL games. But he failed to score after quarter-time as the Hawks established their dominance.

Cotton’s December to Remember began on the first day of this month when he scored 59 points at RAC Arena against New Zealand.

He followed up with 40 points at home against Illawarra, then knocked down 49 points in Adelaide before producing a 44-point performance in Cairns.

Cotton got away to a flyer with 13 points in the first quarter. The Hawks threw both Wani Swaka Lo Buluk and Will Hickey at him throughout the term, and Hickey had no answers as Cotton repeatedly hit shots.

But the Wildcats trailed 37-28 at quarter time and Tyler Harvey had nine points of his own.

Could Cotton maintain that momentum in the second quarter? The answer was no.

Illawarra restricted the four-time NBL MVP to only two shots and he missed them both. That meant he went to half-time needed to score 27 points in the second half to hit 40.

Of greater concern though was that Illawarra led 63-48. Trey Kel had 22 points and the Wildcats were powerless to stop the Hawks from scoring.

The home team was making Perth pay for turnovers and the impact of not having injured stars Kristian Doolittle and Tai Webster was clear.

The third quarter was all-Illawarra. They won the term 26-15 while opening up a 27-point lead. Tellingly, they kept Cotton scoreless again and Keanu PInder became the Wildcats’ leading scorer with 14 points at three quarter time.

Cotton and Pinder were the only Wildcats in double figures. Four Hawks had already achieved that task.

The question for the final quarter was whether the Wildcats could make the scoreboard respectable. The Hawks got the lead out to 34 points and suddenly Perth were experiencing a day to forget. Their largest loss in the modern 40-minute era was 35 points.

Kel finished with 31 points and Sam Froling had 18 for the Hawks. Pinder top score for the Wildcats with 16 points.

The Wildcats will return home for Christmas and a short break before their next game against Adelaide on Saturday.