Perth Wildcats coach John Rillie has demanded more effort from his players when it comes to rebounding, saying his angry time-out during the third quarter where he blasted the team while standing on the court was purely directed at that issue.

The Wildcats lost to Illawarra 105-98 at RAC Arena on Saturday night and it was evident from early in the match that Perth had rebounding issues. They lost that battle 45-31 for the night.

Illawarra won the rebounds 14-5 during the second quarter, and that tally included eight offensive boards.

Then during the third quarter, as Illawarra’s lead surged into double figures, Perth didn’t have a single player contest the rebound after a long-range thee-point attempt from Dylan Windler, while Illawarra had teammates competing for the same ball. When Will Hickey was best positioned to win the next offensive rebound for the Hawks, Rillie had seen enough and called for a time-out.

But instead of allowing his players to sit down, he kept them on the court because that is the NBL’s way of telling broadcasters to turn off the coach’s microphone. Rillie unleashed and revealed his spray was totally directed towards rebounding.

“Absolutely,” he said.

“To me, there’s certain aspects of the game that you should bring every night, and that’s one of them. That’s why they won. Our effort in that area was not at a level to win a game like that.

“In the first half it was nine to one offensive rebounds. They beat us on the glass by 14. It’s simple. If you rebound at a high level, you give yourself a chance when you can’t find the rhythm. The disappointing thing for me is just our willingness to go pursue the the rebound.

“Too many times we have two or three guys in the fight. With who we are as a team, we need five guys, and we just don’t get that consistently enough right now as a team.”

The Wildcats are missing star centre Jo Lual-Acuil due to a long term calf injury and have struggled to cover for his absence. Perth have lost the rebounds by more than 50 so far this season.

Rillie’s players clearly got the message at the end of the game because Anthony Dell’Orso had no interest in highlighting his 21 points during the post-game press conference, saying he needed to rebound more.

“I had one. Just unacceptable,” he said.

“I’m six foot six. There’s no reason why I should have one rebound.

“Doolittle rebounds. Windler rebounded. I’ve got to help out, especially as a guard. Not many guards go to the boards, so I get essentially free rebounds almost every possession. I’ve got to go and help out the bigs and help on the fight because they’ve got some big dudes.”