The Perth Wildcats are within one game of a historic fifth NBL championship after a 75-64 win over the Wollongong ahm Hawks in Game One of the NBL Grand Final series at Challenge Stadium on Friday night.
The Wildcats came into the championship decider with home court advantage after finishing as minor premiers for the first time since 1995 and beat the Gold Coast Blaze 2-0 to enter the Grand Final.
Now one more win either in Wollongong on Tuesday night or back in The Jungle next Friday will see the Wildcats become the first NBL franchise to win five championships after also winning in 1990-91, 1995 and 2000.
The win was largely set up by a 22-2 run either side of quarter-time and then a strong finish to the final quarter with the Hawks now requiring to hold home court advantage on Tuesday to force a decisive third match back in Perth.
Shawn Redhage set the tone for the Wildcats with seven of his 15 points in the first quarter and is now a game away from being a championship captain in his first season as skipper.
Import guard Kevin Lisch also continued his superb finish to the season with 15 points including 2-of-2 from beyond the arc.
Fellow import Galen Young showed his effectiveness inside with 11 points and seven boards.
Jesse Wagstaff and Damian Martin added eight points each while the only Wildcat with grand final experience, Martin Cattalini, celebrated his 450th NBL match with four points and is one victory away from a fourth career championship.
Tim Coenraad led the way for his more-experienced Hawks team-mates with 16 points that included 4-of-5 from three-point territory.
Veteran Mat Campbell added 13 points and Luke Martin 11 off the bench, of which 10 came in the second quarter.
The Hawks' inside presence wasn't there as it has been all season with Larry Davidson restricted to five points and three boards, and Cameron Tragardh five points and nine rebounds.
The Hawks started strongly in an attempt to take The Jungle crowd out of the contest early and raced to a 13-7 lead thanks to three-point bombs to Campbell, Glen Saville and Coenraad.
The home side then went on an inspired 13-point run to open a 20-13 lead as it stifled Wollongong's offence, caused some turnovers and capitalised.
Davidson scored just before quarter-time to bring the Hawks back within five.
The Wildcats again dominated to start the second period with two quick baskets to Young, one to Lisch and then a three from Wagstaff to suddenly see the home side up 29-15 after scoring 22 of 24 points.
Wollongong then showed its heart to finish off the second quarter strongly.
Luke Martin led the way with 10 points off the bench and suddenly at half-time the Wildcats only led by three.
Lisch and Davidson traded threes to start the second half for their sides before a three-point play from Tragardh, his first points of the game, and two free-throws from Campbell saw Wollongong hit the lead at 43-42 for the first time since late in the first period.
The Cats did hit back after that to lead by as much as six again, but two threes from Coenraad helped the Hawks stay within six by three-quarter time.
Quick baskets to Young and Brad Robbins for Perth saw the margin stretch back out to eight points a minute into the final quarter, but a three to Campbell and free-throws to Dave Gruber and Coenraad soon had Wollongong back within three.
Young bounced back from two-straight poor passes to score with just under four minutes to go to put Perth back up 67-62.
Redhage and Coenraad then scored at either end before a wide open Damian Martin hit a three for Perth to stretch the lead back to six with 80 seconds to go.
From there the Cats did enough with the Grand Final now heading to Wollongong for Game Two on Tuesday.
Perth Wildcats 75 (Redhage 15, Lisch 15, Young 11)
Wollongong ahm Hawks 64 (Coenraad 16, Campbell 13, L Martin 11)
@ Challenge Stadium; 05/03/10. Crowd: 4,600.
