Perth Wildcats coach Rob Beveridge is now just one game from achieving his dream of winning an NBL championship after a hard-fought win over Wollongong in Game 1 on Friday night.
The 'Cats earned home court advantage after finishing as minor premiers for the first time since 1995 and even though his team opened up handy double-digit leads on a handful of occasions, the Hawks kept fighting back hard in the opening game of the best-of-three series at Challenge Stadium.
With captain Shawn Redhage, import guard Kevin Lisch, import big man Galen Young and wounded point guard (calf strain) Brad Robbins leading the way, Beveridge was proud of his team's effort to win 75-64 to now be within reach of becoming the first NBL franchise to five championships.
"It's enormous relief because they just kept coming and never gave in. You know that's going to happen in a Grand Final series and I was just proud of our guys sticking together when it really counted," Beveridge said.
"It got back to one-point there and the guys dug in. We were a little bit undisciplined in the second quarter with a few breakdowns, but we adjusted and when it really came to the crunch we were pretty good."
Beveridge focused on stopping the outside shooting of Hawks veterans Mat Campbell and Glen Saville. That defence worked well with Campbell restricted to 13 points on 2-of-7 shooting from three-point territory and Saville kept to 2-of-10 from the field and 1-of-5 from beyond the arc for five points.
Rookie Tim Coenraad (16 points, 4-of-5 from beyond the arc) and Luke Martin (11 points, 10 in the second quarter fight back) did step up for Wollongong, but Beveridge was willing to let that happen in favour of stopping the recognised scorers.
"The key to this game was defending the three-point line and particularly Campbell and Saville. That's who we targeted and it was no disrespect to Luke Martin or Tim Coenraad, but right now they're not recognised as their main scorers," he said.
"To an extent I preferred them to make the big-time shots with one second to go rather than Campbell getting going. We did a pretty good job on Campbell and Saville, but those other guys like Luke Martin and Coenraad did a damned good job of keeping them in the game."
Now that Perth has won at home in Game 1 to take the lead in the series, the next challenge is a big one on Tuesday night in Wollongong. The Hawks lost one game all season there, to the wooden-spooners Adelaide, so Beveridge knows the 'Cats face an uphill battle.
"We know Wollongong will throw everything at us. They have an outstanding record at home, but that's our challenge. We will talk about being so focused and disciplined on the road now. We have to play better if we are going to win in Wollongong," he said.
"They are averaging 55 percent from the three-point line at home against us. They shoot the ball well, their crowd will be going nuts just like ours was. So much of our focus will be on defending that three-point line because when they get going they are tough to stop."
Wildcats captain Shawn Redhage was desperate to set the tone early and had seven of his 15 points in the first quarter, but he