Gleeson praises effort despite close loss to Bullets

The Perth Wildcats will focus on improving the one-percenters, following its 95-92 loss to the Brisbane Bullets on Friday night.

After a 4-13 start to the game, the Wildcats fought their way back to make it a battle down the stretch, but were unable to steal the win.

“I thought the guys played their hearts out, gave the effort, everything we wanted to do there,” said Trevor Gleeson.

“There was a few concentration issues on the glass, some bad rotation by us, and silly fouls which sent them to the foul line.But after all that, it was only three points, We gave the effort, we just need to improve our concentration.

“We played our hearts out, that’s what I love about this team, we give it a crack every single night but we have to improve our communication, our rebounding, our box outs, all those little things. It’s easy not to do them, but a championship team does it, and that’s the journey we're on, to make sure we’re doing it every single time."

Clint Steindl agreed.

“If we can tidy those little things up, we go on a 6-0 run and the game starts to swing. It’s those little things we need to identify to get them out of the game.”

Bryce Cotton had 13 points to three quarter time, but a 16-point final term gave his team a great chance.

Todd Blanchfield and John Mooney both added 20 points.

The Bullets won the battle on the glass with 42 rebounds to Perth’s 35.

The Wildcats return to the court for the third time in five days on Sunday, taking on the Illawarra Hawks.

Perth Wildcats 92 (Cotton 29, Mooney 20, Blanchfield 20)

Brisbane Bullets 95 (Sobey 31, Law 23, Johnson 13)