Wildcats overcome gritty Hawks at HoopsFest

The Perth Wildcats appear happy to go with what they've got the rest of this NBL season and started a run of home games with a 92-87 win over the defending champion Illawarra Hawks.

Even with the Wildcats appearing in a degree of control most of the night and ending up going to the foul line 37 times to Illawarra's 12, the Hawks kept coming.

Four late triples in the final minute kept it interesting and the Hawks got within three but Perth got the job done at the stripe to win in front of 12,507 fans at RAC Arena as part of HoopsFest.

The Wildcats won despite the absence of guards Jaron Rillie and David Duke Jr with Rillie's season appearing over following hamstring surgery.

Duke Jr's return is still unclear from an elbow injury, but the Wildcats have resisted the temptation to sign a replacement with the deadline passing by tip-off of Friday night's game.

The tone was set in the opening period with the Wildcats taking the first nine free throws with Tyler Harvey, Jackson Ball and Will Hickey all collecting two fouls quickly for the Hawks.

Illawarra were playing catch up the rest of the way and outside of a 15-4 burst in the second quarter made up of five three-pointers from former Perth pair Wani Swaka Lo Buluk and Todd Blanchfield, the 'Cats maintained a degree of control.

They pushed out to a 14-point lead in the third period but the Hawks kept on coming on and late three balls to Hickey (two), Blanchfield and Johny Narkle kept it interesting.

It's a big win in the context of the season for the Wildcats too as they improve to 15-10 only percentage behind the fourth placed Melbourne United with six of their last eight games at RAC Arena.

Kristian Doolittle had another strong showing for Perth with 21 points and 11 rebounds with Jo Lual-Acuil Jr adding 20 points and seven boards, Ben Henshall 15 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, and Dylan Windler 11 points and 10 boards.

The Hawks' championship defence is hanging by a thread at 8-16 with a third straight loss in eighth place as they sorely missed the added scoring punch of unwell scorer QJ Peterson.

Big men pair Sam Froling (six points, five rebounds) and JaVale McGee (eight points, 14 rebounds) had a limited impact with Blanchfield top scoring with 16 points (4/9 three-point shooting), Hickey 14 (seven assists, five rebounds), Swaka Lo Buluk 13 and Harvey 11 (six assists).

JaVale McGee opened the game in style for the Hawks with a big dunk and he had a bit put back slam soon after too, but in between the Wildcats went on a 6-0 run including a four-point play from Dylan Windler.

The Wildcats ended up taking the first nine free throws of the game too with Tyler Harvey, Jackson Ball and Davo Hickey all with two fouls early for the Hawks with Perth leading 18-13 by the end of one.

David Okwera then gave Perth the perfect start to the second frame with five quick points leading to a Justin Tatum timeout after 54 seconds, but his team responded.

They went on a 15-4 run made up of three triples from Wani Swaka Lo Buluk and two from Todd Blanchfield with the former Wildcats giving the Hawks the one-point lead.

The 'Cats hit back once more with the next seven points after a timeout and ended up turning that into a 44-37 lead by half-time and then opened up the second with the first five points to be out to a 12-point edge.

It got out to 14 shortly after with a three from Windler and then Jesse Wagstaff making a technical called on Hawks coach Justin Tatum.

The Wildcats now have six of their last eight games at home starting on Thursday night against the Cairns Taipans while the Hawks have three straight road matches beginning against the Tasmania JackJumpers next Saturday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2025/26 – HOOPSFEST

PERTH WILDCATS 92 (Doolittle 21, Lual-Acuil Jr 20, Henshall 15)

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 87 (Blanchfield 16, Hickey 14, Swaka Lo Buluk 13)

BOX SCORE