The Perth Wildcats are only one win away from progressing to this season's NBL Grand Final after scoring an 81-68 victory over the Gold Coast Blaze in game one of their Semi Final series at Challenge Stadium on Thursday night.
The Blaze will now be fighting for survival in game two of the best-of-three series which will be held at the Gold Coast Convention Centre on Tuesday night.
If Joey Wright's men avoid elimination from the finals series in that encounter, game three will be back in Perth on Sunday February 28.
Perth forced the first-up result by shutting down the potent Gold Coast scorers and doing well offensively itself.
First-year import Kevin Lisch stepped up in his maiden NBL playoff appearance to score 19 points on 5-of-10 shooting and one three-pointer to help the Wildcats to the 13-point victory over the team that beat them three times during the regular season.
The 'Cats finished on top of the ladder with a 17-11 record to earn home-court advantage right through the playoffs and despite losing to the Blaze on The Jungle floor back on November 28, never trailed after the first two minutes.
The Blaze managed a season-low 26 first-half points courtesy of a disastrous 26 percent shooting.
The 68-point total also only came from a dismal 36 percent four-quarter shooting effort and was Gold Coast's second lowest of the season.
As well as Lisch's 19 points for the Wildcats, point guard Damian Martin had 11 with three from long range and kept the Blaze's dangerous Adam Gibson in check.
Galen Young added 10 points, Martin Cattalini nine and Shawn Redhage 11 in a good all-round display from the Wildcats.
Gold Coast captain James Harvey hit three from long range in the first quarter and finished with 18 points on the back of 4-of-7 from beyond the three-point line.
Anthony Petrie added 12 points and Gibson and Maxey 10 each, but they shot 4-of-14 and 4-of-12 respectively.
The 'Cats raced to a 13-3 lead on the back of some big plays from Luke Schenscher, Lisch, Stephen Weigh, Redhage and Martin, but the Blaze maintained touch.
Their first score came from a three-point play to Mika Vukona when he outmanoeuvred Redhage down low, and then Gibson hit a three and Harvey nailed three bombs to keep the Wildcats' lead to just six after the first quarter.
Four quick points to Young helped the Wildcats open up a 10-point lead once again to start the second quarter and even though Greg Vanderjagt hit two quick buckets for the Blaze and Goulding a three, the home side dominated the rest of the half.
Martin hit two straight three-pointers and that helped the Wildcats open up a commanding 12-point lead and keep the Blaze to a paltry first-half total.
The Blaze opened up the third quarter positively with a three to Gibson, but the 'Cats maintained control to open up a game-high 14-point advantage with three-and-a-half minutes to go.
With Petrie fighting through his sore ankle to hit eight quick points and Maxey his first four of the game, the Blaze cut the margin to 11 at the last break.
Jesse Wagstaff hit a big three to begin the final quarter in what was his first basket of the game to stretch Perth's lead to 14 again.
Maxey answered back for the Blaze and Harvey added a pair of free-throws to bring the deficit back to 10.
Young hit back for the 'Cats by backing down Craig Bradshaw and scoring in the block and after a good defensive play by Martin, Weigh made a good move to score a basket and draw a foul.
He couldn't convert on the three-point play, but it still put Perth back up by 14.
It was never going to be the Blaze's night and when Lisch hit his first three with four-and-a-half minutes to go to give the 'Cats a 15-point lead, the win was secure.
Perth Wildcats 81 (Lisch 19, Martin 11, Redhage 11)
Gold Coast Blaze 68 (Harvey 18, Petrie 12, Gibson 10)
@ Challenge Stadium; 18/02/10. Crowd: 4,400.
