The Perth Wildcats have pulled off their biggest win of the season, demolishing Wollongong 91-57 in an emphatic 34-point result at Challenge Stadium on Saturday night.
The Wildcats had slipped from top-of-the-table contention to merely hanging into the top four after losing five of their last eight matches, their New Year's Eve capitulation to Townsville one of the lowest points of their season.
But coach Rob Beveridge will have been more than heartened by his charges' response, the Wildcats winning all the first three quarters before opening fire in the final term, smashing the visitors 35-16 to secure the massive win.
The 34-point margin eclipsed the club's previous biggest win this season, where the Wildcats had beaten Adelaide by 30 points.
More importantly, it meant Perth has won the individual series with Wollongong. Going into this game, the Wildcats needed to win by 21 points or more in order to secure the series, a task that appeared all-but impossible against fellow high-flyers Wollongong after the Hawks smashed them by 25 points at home in the last game.
But powered by a double-double from Stephen Weigh, the Wildcats produced some impressive defence to begin with before charging home, the Perth side producing an incredible 55 percent accuracy with its three-point attempts.
Weigh notched up 16 points, 12 of those from beyond the arc to go with 10 rebounds, nine of which were in defence. He may have been outscored by Shawn Redhage (17) but still proved the most important player on the court, with Drew Williamson (14) and Brad Robbins (11) also earning double figure tallies.
Tim Coenraad top-scored for the visitors, notching up 12 points, but Cameron Tragardh will have been disappointed with his game, scoring just nine points from 3-of-10 shooting as he struggled to replicate the impact of injured Hawks' playmaker Tywain McKee.
Perhaps fired up by their dispiriting New Year's Eve loss, the Wildcats started emphatically in front of their home crowd, producing an impressive defensive press that held the Hawks to just four points midway through the opening term.
Utilising a re-vamped starting line-up, Wildcats Jesse Wagstaff and Drew Williamson enjoyed rare starts, their enthusiastic defence pressuring the Hawks into turnovers in an intense opening quarter where scoring was at a premium down both ends.
The hosts had opened up a ten-point lead just before the first break, but that just inspired the Hawks to lift their defensive intensity, the visitors embarking on an 8-3 run either side of quarter-time to cut the margin to five points midway through the term.
The Wildcats' points in that period came from a Weigh three-pointer and it proved a harbinger of things to come.
Thwarted by some impressive Hawks' defence within the key, Perth opted to go long-range and where those shots hadn't come off during the first term they did after the break as Weigh sank three from three and Williamson chipped in with one as well, the hosts taking an 11-point lead into half-time, scores at 37-26.
In such a low-scoring defensive affair, it wasn't surprising when tempers started fraying just before the main break, with a rather diminutive referee comically forced to separate the players after Wildcat Wagstaff appeared to lash out at Matt Campbell with his foot.
Perth managed to outscore the Hawks 19-15 in the third quarter to be 15 points ahead at the final break, with the