Bryce Cotton has made a legendary NBL career out of doing what he had done to him on Thursday night when Elijah Pepper made a miracle three-point shot while being fouled as the Perth Wildcats sunk the Adelaide 36ers.

Cotton was back on his former home floor at RAC Arena celebrating his 300th NBL game. Not long before he had made a huge triple to start an 8-0 run for the Sixers that put them in a winning position up three with under 10 seconds left.

Pepper took it upon himself to take the ball up the floor for the Wildcats with Cotton defending him. What happened is what the six-time MVP has done so many times over his 300-game career.

Pepper drew the foul from Cotton while going up for the three-point shot and then just chucked it up knowing he had three free throws to fall back on anyway.

He banked the shot in with 1.9 seconds left for the 'Cats to end up winning 98-97 and asked simply afterwards if it was the best shot he's ever made so far, Pepper was in little doubt.

"Yeah, I don’t think it's even close (best shot I've made)," he said.

His coach John Rillie was no stranger to hitting big shots himself, including a historic 10 three-pointers when Trevor Gleeson was his coach who he went head-to-head with for the first time.

But Rillie wasn’t going to let Pepper get too ahead of himself and quickly brought him back down to earth.

"He needed to make it because he helped off of (John) Jenkins up the other end," Rillie said.

"So he needed to make something happen."

Looking back on the last possession, Pepper did like the idea of trying to get up the last shot with the game on the line given he already had 22 points to his name by that stage in the game.

He had Cotton guarding him so he did always think he'd be able to get off a good look, but the time was running out quicker than he expected but as soon as he felt Cotton reach in, he knew things had gone his way.

"It might have been the longest post up of all-time for starters, but I just remember coming off and BC was able to turn me once and twice," Pepper said.

"I knew the clock was kinda running low and I had to get it up, and when I was sweeping through he kinda put his hands in there. I knew then if you go up with it they'll call the foul and I just happened to make it as well."

Pepper did have in mind the play he was trying to get the Wildcats into after a Jacob Rigoni free-throw up the other end put the 36ers up by two, but the possession never really was allowed to get to where they had planned.

So instead, Pepper just tried to at worst get to the foul line, and then if his shot went in that would be a bonus.

It couldn’t have possibly panned out any better.

"That wasn’t exactly the play that was drawn up and we have stuff set up for that, but he was kinda able to turn me a couple of times which made it tough to get into those actions," Pepper said.

"And by the time I got to the three-point line, I think there was only two seconds left or something like that. So I kinda just had to get one up and he just happened to reach when he was going to shoot."

In the bigger picture, it was a significant result for the Wildcats after they had started the season with a disappointing 21-point loss also at RAC Arena against the South East Melbourne Phoenix back on Saturday night.

They then found themselves up 15 in the second quarter on Thursday against the 36ers and things were going well. Then all of a sudden they weren’t and it was Adelaide up by 13 late in the third term.

But Perth got themselves back in the game and were up five inside the last two minutes before an 8-0 run from the Sixers which meant they had to rely on the heroics of Pepper at the buzzer.

The Wildcats still have new import point guard Brandon Knight to come into the team, but it was a big result and Pepper likes the ability to stick together against adversity they showed.

"You know I think just staying together was huge for us and obviously after the South East game when it was tied with about six minutes left, then they kinda went on that big run to blow the game out of proportion," Pepper said.

"This time, they go on that run in the third quarter and made a run at the end of the fourth as well, and we stuck together and I think that's big for this group especially.

"Teams are always going to make runs so being able to stick together I think is huge for us."

Chris Pike

Pepper rides the high of career-best shot