The undefeated Perth Wildcats turned it on with a massive first quarter and then withstood a second half fight back to beat the Townsville Crocodiles 93-85 at the Townsville Entertainment Centre tonight.

The 'Cats raced out to a tremendous start in front of almost 4000 fans at The Swamp leading by 22 points by quarter-time on the back of 33 points in the opening period.

That lead even extended to as much as 26 during the second and was still 23 by the main break, but the Crocs were always going to make a charge and did so in a big way.

Late in the piece Townsville in fact got within three points of the Wildcats, but a steadying basket to co-captain Shawn Redhage, and then clutch free-throws from Kevin Lisch sealed the deal for the visitors.

The Wildcats now are 3-0 on the 2011/12 iiNet NBL Championship season following wins over Adelaide, Melbourne and now Townsville ahead of Friday's clash at Challenge Stadium with the Adelaide 36ers.

Lisch continued his scintillating start to the season with another superb display to finish with 28 points, 19 of which came in the opening half. It was on the back of 7-of-12 shooting from the field, 4-of-7 from three-point land and 10-of-10 from the foul line.

Jesse Wagstaff also continued his strong start to the season with 14 points while Drew Williamson nailed 10, Redhage nine (and seven assists), Luke Nevill eight, Matt Knight eight, Brad Robbins seven, Cam Tovey seven (seven rebounds, three assists) and Greg Hire two.

Given that the Crocs lost just once all of last season at home, coach Rob Beveridge was obviously delighted that his Wildcats came away with the win, but there were definite nervous moments down the stretch and he was glad that the second half highlighted some areas to work on.

"I get used to it. Last year we had eight games decided by less than three points. Of course there is (nervous moments)," Beveridge said.

"We wanted to come out starting well to try and keep the crowd out of the game, and we showed just why you have to do that. We were very good in that first quarter, in particular, and our offence and defence was almost a clinic. But we always know that in this environment that if the crowd gets behind them you see what happened in that second half.

"I did expect them to comeback. I was pretty annoyed with our players and we went with a different starting line-up in the third quarter in case we had our heads up our bums thinking that we are going to continue how we did in the first half. That there showed a massive crack in our armour and I'm glad it happened now early in the season."

Ex-Wildcat and Boomer Peter Crawford top-scored for Townsville with 21 points while Jacob Holmes had a big night with 17 and 14 rebounds. Eddie Gills also had 15 points and fellow import Elvin Mims 12.

Robbins came out firing for the 'Cats in the absence of Damian Martin with the first bucket of the game and when Tovey nailed a three shortly after suddenly the visitors led 9-2 to leave the Crocs shell-shocked.

It was more of the same for the rest of the first period with Lisch and Wagstaff nailing big threes, and Nevill and Williamson, in particular, joining in the action as the 'Cats led 33-11 after one.

After a three-pointer from Redhage, free-throw from Robbins and a pair to Lisch early in the second quarter the Wildcats then led by 24 points and then stretched out to 26 soon after on the back of a Lisch bucket. He then nailed two more three-pointers for the half as the 'Cats went in leading 57-34.

The Crocodiles began the third quarter with seven straight points and then did close to within 10 points later in the period, but a 7-0 run thanks to Wagstaff, Redhage, Lisch and Williamson, and then another three to Williamson ensured the Wildcats still led by 16 at three quarter-time.

However, the Crocs were able to whittle that down throughout the last quarter and following a 7-0 run largely inspired by Crawford were within just three points with just over four minutes to play. However, strong play down the stretch from Redhage and Lisch saw the 'Cats pull away and win by eight.

Perth Wildcats 93 (Kevin Lisch 28, Jesse Wagstaff 14, Drew Williamson 10)
defeated
Townsville Crocodiles 85 (Peter Crawford 21, Jacob Holmes 17, Eddie Gill 15)
Box scores