BOXSCORE

The Perth Wildcats set up a tantalising top-of-the-table clash with New Zealand by beating the third-placed Townsville Crocodiles 87-55 at Challenge Stadium on Saturday night.

The Wildcats went a long way to securing the victory with an 11-0 run over the last five minutes of the second quarter, before two Drew Williamson triples and some Peter Crawford ill-discipline had the Cats up by 24 in the third term.

The home team then scored the first 14 points of the last period to lead by 37 with just under five minutes to go and cruised to the 32-point win.

The Cats set up the win thanks to some trademark full-court defensive pressure, forcing the Crocs into 12 turnovers in the first half and another eight in the second.

Townsville have not won in Perth since the famous semi-final victory in February 2009, and the loss keeps them locked in a battle to remain in the top four.

It was even contribution from the Cats with Shawn Redhage scoring 16, Kevin Lisch 15, Jesse Wagstaff 13, Luke Nevill 11, and Damian Martin limiting the influence of Crocs point guard Eddie Gill.

Nevill clearly took the points in his match-up with Crocs giant Luke Schenscher.

Jacob Holmes top-scored for the Crocs with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Crawford had a tough night but scored 11 and Elvin Mims added 10 in a game to forget for Townsville.

The Wildcats won their sixth straight game for the first time in Rob Beveridge's time as coach, and now play New Zealand on Thursday in a match-up with huge bearing on who will take first place and home-court advantage in the playoffs.

Wildcats coach Rob Beveridge couldn’t speak highly enough of the defensive efforts of his team.

"I think we set a league record tonight so that was pretty outstanding. We were just very, very good at locking them down," he said.

"I can't remember them running any offence and I think that's the key for us. We set and pick them up so early, and the way that Robbo and Damo pressure the ball is what I look at in regards to how good we were defensively."

Crocs coach Paul Woolpert was understandably disappointed with not only the loss, but the scale of it, and will now work on some deficiencies Perth made glaringly obvious.

"It went wrong a number of different ways and I think our lack of offensive execution played right into the Wildcats' hands, and they were allowed to get steals off our turnovers and they took advantage of it," he said.

"It was a combination of their pressure and our lack of valuing possessions and taking care of the basketball. I would hope that it would piss our guys off.

"We need to improve and work on some things. Perth kind of brings those things to light, your weaknesses, and I think they exposed a few."

Perth Wildcats 87 (Redhage 16, Lisch 15, Wagstaff 13)
Townsville Crocodiles 55 (Holmes 14, Crawford 11, Mims 10)

Crowd: About 4000 at Challenge Stadium, Perth