New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nJust three days after DMac went public with a passionate plea to stay in charge at the club, his players failed to respond with an ugly opening to the second half marring what could\u2019ve been a rallying display of pride. Instead, Brisbane threw a total of 16 turnovers and scored just 31 points in the second half.<\/p>\n
Stealthy Wildcat Elijah Pepper was pivotal in Perth\u2019s 21-nil run out of half time, the sharpshooting 24-year-old adding spice with 12 points and a highlight four-point play.<\/p>\n
David Okwera also aimed up with two corner threes but it was Brisbane\u2019s inability to treasure possession that hurt them most.<\/p>\n
Hawks end the year with close win | 01:04<\/p>\n
MAN DOWN<\/p>\n
There was a moment early in the second quarter that summed up the Bullets\u2019 season perfectly. Big Tyrell Harrison, after scoring eight points in the first, got a great steal but butted heads with teammate Mitch Norton hustling for the loose ball and both fell to the ground.<\/p>\n
Harrison did not return to the court. It has been the case often this season, when Brisbane does something well it goes up in flames.<\/p>\n
While Brisbane\u2019s most consistent player was off the court, the Jacob-Holt inspired hosts hotted up and turned a nine-point quarter time deficit into a 44-40 lead entering the third.<\/p>\n
It vanished quickly.<\/p>\n
Sobey sinks Taipans in Cairns | 00:51<\/p>\n
HOLT\u2019S HOTTING UP<\/p>\n
It was ugly hoops during the first half but Holt\u2019s 13-point barrage gave the home side a massive lift.<\/p>\n
After shooting a dismal 6-17 in the first and going scoreless for about three minutes, Brisbane needed someone to step up.<\/p>\n
There was a sloppy airball by Alex Ducas, a halfcourt turnover by key import Javon Freeman-Liberty out of the break and another error when JFL and Sam McDaniel botched an uncontested rebound by not being on the same page.<\/p>\n
But the calamitous times meant Canadian forward Holt could shine. He came out well, won defensive boards, knocked down two threes and was full of energy (15pts, 7rbs, 2asts, 1blk).<\/p>\n
Perth picked up its game out of the main break, scoring 21 unanswered points to take a 61-44 lead that wasn\u2019t surrendered.<\/p>\n
Less than 24 hours after fireworks lit up the river city, there was simply no firepower left over for the boys in blue (28-66 field goal shooting).<\/p>\n
Perth powerhouse Jo Lual-Acuil Jr was elite with 17 points and eight rebounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The embattled Bullets aren\u2019t helping the cause of interim coach Darryl McDonald winning the job in full-time capacity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[142013,64,63,689,726,206986,115393,206982,206165,145903,206987,26122,24270,54127,6086,206132,10940,125388,673,134403,206983,677,206989,206984,206144,125395,85,206988,10378,4526,206985],"class_list":["post-385473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-alex-ducas","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-basketball","tag-brutal-moment-sums","tag-consistent-player","tag-corner-threes","tag-darryl-mcdonald","tag-field-goal-shooting","tag-halfcourt-turnover","tag-head-clash","tag-home-side","tag-horror-season","tag-interim-coach","tag-jason-levien","tag-liberal-party","tag-mitch-norton","tag-new-south-wales","tag-nick-tucker","tag-nine-point-quarter-time","tag-oceania","tag-quarter-time-deficit","tag-river-city","tag-roster-changes","tag-sam-mcdaniel","tag-sports","tag-third-quarter-bite","tag-three-game-losing-streak","tag-wollongong","tag-won-defensive-boards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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