The Perth Wildcats have returned to the top of the NBL ladder by winning the second game of a back-to-back weekend on the road again, this time beating the Wollongong Hawks 86-70 tonight at the WIN Entertainment Centre.
The 16-point victory improves the Wildcats record on the 2011/12 iiNet NBL Championship season to 6-3 and keeps them ahead of the New Zealand Breakers and Melbourne Tigers on the ladder.
Click here to listen to the post-match press conference with Rob Beveridge and Shawn Redhage
The win comes after the 'Cats lost to the Tigers at The Cage on Friday night, and is on the back of last weekend's road trip that saw them lose to Gold Coast but beat the Cairns Taipans.
It was also Perth's first win in Wollongong since February 10, 2006, and comes just seven days after a first win in Cairns in three years.
The Wildcats now return home on Monday to prepare for back-to-back home clashes starting against the Sydney Kings at Challenge Stadium next Sunday, followed by another game against the Adelaide 36ers on Sunday December 4.
Wildcats co-captain Shawn Redhage top-scored tonight in Wollongong with 18 points on an effective 8-of-15 shooting from the field. He rounded out his strong game with five rebounds and four assists.
Big man Matt Knight had another terrific game with 14 points on 7-of-11 shooting, and seven rebounds.
Co-captain Brad Robbins was superb again with 12 points, five boards, four steals and three assists.
Cam Tovey had 10 points (four rebounds, four assists), Jesse Wagstaff 10 (five boards), Kevin Lisch nine, Luke Nevill five (eight rebounds), Drew Williamson five and Everard Bartlett three.
Wildcats coach Rob Beveridge was delighted with the way his group responded after a disappointing second half in Melbourne on Friday night.
"We've been playing some basketball where we are completely dominating teams and then we improvise, and go away from that. That was a classic example of that against Melbourne where it was total domination in the first half and then in the second half we went away from our game plan," Beveridge said.
"Tonight it wasn’t about the Hawks, it was about us understanding what our strengths are, what their strengths are and executing a game plan. Tonight I thought it was very good. I got after the guys pretty hard and the way the leadership group together was great, and they rebounded from Friday very, very well."
Once again the Wildcats got off to a flying start and led 9-2 after scores to Robbins, Redhage and Tovey to open the game. A three to Lisch then stretched that to 12-4 before Knight again got going to continue his big weekend after 24 points on Friday in Melbourne.
When Bartlett nailed another three the 'Cats were firmly in control leading 25-11 and that advantage was still 12 at quarter-time following another triple, this time to Williamson.
The Hawks did hit back hard during the second quarter and six consecutive points saw them get back to within two with four minutes of the first half to go, but four points to Lisch and a three-pointer to Redhage saw the Wildcats hold a five-point lead at the main break.
Unlike on Friday in Melbourne, the 'Cats came out firing to start the second half with the first seven points. Soon after a three-pointer to Tovey made the margin 11 again and it was 13 by three quarter-time.
It was a similar story to open the final period as well with a three to Williamson, and buckets to Nevill and Wagstaff quickly stretching the lead to 20 before the Hawks could even get on the board.
Wollongong wasn’t able to get back any closer than 12 points over the course of the last quarter as the Wildcats cruised to the hard fought 16-point win.
Perth Wildcats 86 (Shawn Redhage 18, Matt Knight 14, Brad Robbins 12)
defeated
Wollongong Hawks 70 (Showron Glover 12, Oscar Forman 11, Larry Davidson 9)
Box scores
