Perth Wildcats guard Elijah Pepper sets NBL1 scoring record with 59 points for Warwick Senators
Pepper powered his Warwick Senators to a 51-point victory over last-placed South West Slammers with a phenomenal showing at Eaton Recreation Centre where connected on six of his nine three-point shots and was even more dominant inside the arc, where only six of his 22 attempts did not find the bottom of the net.
In his side's 130-78 win, he also dished out nine assists, grabbed four rebounds and recorded two steals.
The visitors held an insurmountable 38-point advantage at the final break but Pepper remained in the game and added another 14 points in the final frame to ensure he claimed the record.
As well as the NBL1 West record, the showing saw Pepper claim the record across the entire NBL1, the NBL's second-tier competition which comprises of five leagues around the country.
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Elijah Pepper played his first season with Perth Wildcats in 2024-25.
Credit: Paul Kane
/ Getty Images
The performance has all but sealed the league's most valuable player award for Pepper, who has produced per-game averages of 36.3 points and 7.3 assists for the second-placed Senators this season.
Remarkably, it was the fourth time the 24-year-old had scored more than 50 points or more in a game this year — three of which came within the opening four games of a white-hot start to his campaign where he fell only two points short of the mark in his other appearance.
Pepper averaged 7.1 points per game in his first campaign with the Wildcats as he floated in and out of the rotation but is set for a bigger role this season due to the defection of superstar Bryce Cotton to Adelaide 36ers.
He is one of two 2024-25 Wildcats on the Senators' roster, alongside Todd Withers, who spent last season as the club's nominated replacement player able to cover for their other imports when they were unavailable.
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