WESTERN Australia watched its two basketball sides split results on Saturday night, with the Perth Wildcats falling to Melbourne United and a vintage Chris Goulding performance on Saturday night, while the Perth Lynx took care of business in Adelaide, comfortably handling the Lightning 92-78.

The Cats have won five games from 11 appearances this season, sitting sixth on the ladder after eight rounds. The Lynx are third on the table after winning two of their first three games of the WNBL season.

At John Cain Arena it was all Wildcats in the opening half as Melbourne United, still reeling from their 34-point defeat at the hands of the New Zealand Breakers on Monday, appeared lifeless and demoralised. Perth put up 65 first half points and were on track to record back-to-back wins and topple the ladder leading side. 

Import Kristian Doolittle has been shouldering much of the scoring load in Bryce Cotton’s absence, and along with next star Izan Almansa, both posted 17 points going into the main break. Perth looked comfortable leading by 14 at halftime and would need something to go very wrong to leave Melbourne dismayed.

In the second half, things did go very wrong for Perth, and it came in the form of one Christopher James Goulding. As quick as they had grown the lead, the Wildcats found themselves trailing by six at three quarter time, after Goulding knocked down six threes en route to an enormous 25-point quarter. The performance was a reminder that Goulding is and has been one of the best shooters, if not players of the last two decades and that Melbourne is every bit the contender it seems to be. 

Melbourne outscored Perth 55-32 in the second half, as Goulding finished with a whopping 46 points, shooting 9-21 from beyond the arc, good for 43 per cent. It will go down as one of the greatest performances in NBL history as he near single-handedly dragged his side from apparent defeat to unprecedented victory. 

No other player scored more than 13 points for Melbourne, that being Marcus Lee from the bench after Jack White’s night was cut short due to a calf complaint. Matthew Dellavedova dished out 12 assists, while Shea Ili added seven of his own to go with five steals. 

Tai Webster continues to come off the bench as he re-integrates back into the rotation after injury, so Ben Henshall once again got the start and scored an efficient 15 points on 83 per cent shooting from the field, and 3/3 from downtown. Keanu Pinder came off the bench as well in this one and added a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Dylan Windler flirted with the same with nine points and eight rebounds of his own.

The Wildcats were led by Doolittle’s 21 points, four rebounds and five assists, while Next Star Almansa, who started in the place of Pinder, continues to impress in increased minutes with 19 points and seven rebounds. The sensation keeps climbing draft boards and if he is able to replicate performances like this one there is no limit on how high he could be selected in the 2025 NBA Draft.

Looking ahead, the Wildcats return to Western Australia to play the SEM Phoenix, who they lost to just nine days ago, and will then do battle with the Bullets in Brisbane on Sunday afternoon. Melbourne will stay in Victoria and host the Adelaide 36ers on Sunday.

Elsewhere on Saturday it was the Perth Lynx taking on the Adelaide Lightning, and the Lynx got the chocolates, winning by 14 points. They carried some momentum into this one after a big win over the reigning premiers in Round 1 and a spirited, narrow loss to the Fire to open Round 2. 

Perth was led by its skipper Anneli Maley who scored 18 points and collected 12 rebounds, while Laeticia Amihere poured in 17 points of her own. Alexandra Ciabattoni (15 points, four assists, five rebounds, three blocks), Miela Sowah (13 points) and Alex Wilson (11 points, six assists, nine rebounds, two steals, two blocks) all posted double digit scoring efforts as well for the away side, while Steph Gorman continues to put up balanced performances, adding nine points and five rebounds while shooting 3/5 from long range. 

The Lynx took the lead in the second quarter and didn’t look back, after chasing tail the entire game against Townsville. Though their woes at the free throw line continued (they have shot 70 per cent, 50 per cent and 70 per cent across their three games) they could not be denied on the boards, and they scored 22 points from Lightning turnovers. The Lynx were spurred by their bench who collectively put up 18 points to the Lightning’s seven.

For the Lightning it was Isobel Borlase and her namesake Isabelle Bourne who led all comers, scoring 24 and 21 points respectively. Bourne did her work from three-point range, nailing 3/5 attempts, while Borlase forced her way inside to get her buckets. Japreece Dean chipped in 16 points and five rebounds and forward Brianna Turner (seven points, four assists, 11 rebounds, six steals, two blocks) stuffed the stat sheet.

Adelaide has now dropped both of its games to begin the season and will seek to redeem itself against newcomers Geelong United on Saturday afternoon, while the Lynx, who sit 2-1 face the UC Capitals on Thursday as they look to knock off the bottom placed side.