The crowd was expecting a huge game tonight with 6 Australian Rollers on the court - Bill Latham and Jeremy Doyle from the WheelKings, and Justin Eveson, Brad Ness, Shaun Norris and Michael Hartnett from Perth. Add in super-fast Australian Glider Kylie Gauci and Great Britain's triple Paralympian Jon Pollock for the WheelKings and collectively they represented a tremendous gathering of talent.

Perth jumped out to a 4 point lead midway through the first quarter but neither team looked like they were establishing any dominance. Wenty would have been level-pegging or in front if they'd made a few of the easy shots that were being created by Jon Pollock with his terrific passes. The Wheelcats maintained their lead by having multiple scoring threats on the court with 6 players getting on the scoresheet. Also, their height advantage was in effect as they picked up 6 points off offensive rebounds to lead 19-14 at the first break.

The second quarter belonged to Jon Pollock as he piled on 17 points including 3 three-pointers. He got the WheelKings back to 29-29 at the 4 minute mark  and with just 50 seconds left to half-time they were in front 35-33. They then had an alarming 3 back-to-back turnovers which Perth's Eveson had no problem turning into 7 points to re-establish Perth's 5 point lead. Pollock was leading all scorers with 21 points but his team was down 40-35.
Wenty had pretty much stopped the Wheelcats getting offensive boards but had found another way to supply the ball to Perth by amassing 6 turnovers in the quarter.

Eveson was still dominating as the second half opened and he extended his run of unanswered points to 12. He was also drawing fouls and blocking shots. Meanwhile, Wenty were doing themselves no favours as they racked up 5 more turnovers in less than 3 minutes. This allowed Perth to jump to a 14 point lead just 4 minutes into the term. Wenty then started taking better care of the basketball but couldn't make their shots at a decent rate. Perth got the lead out to 68-50 with Pollock adding just 2 points to his half-time tally. Eveson was having a great game with 29 points and and he got solid backing from teammate Ness who had a strong 12 point quarter. Craig Cannane had 8 of the WheelKings 15 third-quarter points as coach Hewson successfully injected his veteran into the game in an effort to find more potent offence. Pollock had added just 2 points to his half-time tally and Perth entered the last quarter with an almost unassailable 68-50 lead.

Wenty kept chipping away at the Perth lead but the visitors always had an answer and the WheelKings were still behind by 16 with 4:40 left in the game. Wenty then excited the fans with an 8-0 run ignited by a big 3 from Pollock. However, the surge was stalled when, still down 8 with 2:35 left, referee Matt Wells called a controversial unsportsmanlike foul on Jon Simon for grabbing Perth rookie Adam Deans who was in the process of making a shot under the basket. Deans went to the foul line for the 3-point play but missed the freebie, The problem was that the  Wheelcats retained possession from halfway and Deans scored inside again for a 12 point lead. Wenty's momentum was gone and Perth put on a final 13-5 run to close out the game 89-73.

Jon Pollock was outstanding for Wenty but it's fair to say that Bill Latham wasn't at his best after returning from Spain just the night before. Perth got 75% of their points in the paint and won the rebounds 48-33. Jon Simon, Josh Meoli and Craig Cannane battled valiantly around the ring but were at a 30cm vertical reach disadvantage against Eveson and Ness. This is where the height of the absent Koen Jansens and Jeremy Van Asperen was sorely missed. The Wheelkings played hard but couldn't overcome Perth's physical advantages.

Wenty Leagues WheelKings
Jon Pollock - 36 points, 8 assists
Jonathon Simon - 12 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists.
Bill Latham - 12 points, 7 rebounds
Craig Cannane - 10 points, 9 rebounds

Perth Wheelcats
Justin Eveson - 38 points, 19 rebounds, 8 assists
Brad Ness - 21 points, 9 rebounds
Shaun Norris - 10 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds
Adam Deans - 10 points, 5 rebounds

NOTE: photos of tonight's game by Reverend William A. Stewart can be seen at http://www.pbase.com/wrs864/wheelkings_vs_wheelcats_24th_july_2009