The Perth Wildcats withstood a second-half shooting barrage from the Wollongong Hawks to win a 80-68 thriller on Friday night at Perth Arena and move into equal-second place with the Hawks.

The Wildcats' 12-point win was their 13th straight home victory over Wollongong, coming after the Hawks recorded their biggest ever win over the Cats in Wollongong earlier this season to the tune of 33 points.

All eyes were on new import Michael Dunigan, an injury-replacement for big man Matt Knight, and he set the 11,239 strong crowd inside Perth Arena alight with his dunking, blocking and overall energy.

He finished with 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting, four rebounds and a block from the field to give the Cats a strong inside presence offensively and help change the shots of Wollongong's driving guards.

"He was very impressive. I just love his enthusiasm, his passion and that becomes infectious within the group," Wildcats coach Rob Beveridge said.

"He's working as hard as he can and he's giving me the look that he's ready to come out, and then he yells to me from the bench that he's ready to go again.

"It has been tremendous having him come in and it gives a lift to all the players as well because we have gone through some pretty tough times. His boost right now is just what the guys needed."

Jesse Wagstaff was the game-winner for the Wildcats, though, with 20 points and seven rebounds in one of the best performances of his career.

Kevin Lisch (14 points), Shawn Redhage (9 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists) and Damian Martin (4 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 blocks, 2 steals) were also valuable contributors.

Lance Hurdle and Oscar Forman top-scored with 17 points for Wollongong, both hitting four three-pointers each for the night.

Rhys Martin also had a big impact for the Hawks to finish with 13 points and six assists while Adris Deleon had 11 points but shot 5-of-17 from the field.

Wollongong only scored seven points in the first period and were 16 points down in the second, but then Hurdle and Forman caught fire from beyond the three-point arc, often set up by Martin.

On the back of their heroics, the Hawks hit the lead late in the third quarter and again early in the last on the back of two straight Hurdle triples.

But the Dunigan-led Wildcats finished the strongest, riding a key steal and block from Damian Martin to come away with the 12-point victory.

Wollongong coach Gordie McLeod was pleased with his team's fight in the second half, but said allowing the Wildcats to dominate the rebounds (43-25) and they keyway proved costly.

"I thought the guys did a fantastic job to hang in there. We gave up 34 points in the paint for the game that's way way too much. They had 15 offensive rebounds and we are in trouble if we are going to allow any team that many," he said.

"We wanted to get them to the perimeter and we did that, but we didn’t rebound well enough. We got ourselves back into the game, but at the end of the day they came up with the plays and hit shots at the right times."

Perth Wildcats 80 (Wagstaff 20, Dunigan 19, Lisch 14)

Wollongong Hawks 68 (Hurdle 17, Forman 17, Martin 13)



Crowd: 11,239 at Perth Arena