It took 98 seconds before the first stand-off occurred, with Davidson and Cats captain Shawn Redhage exchanging shoves.

Tragardh scored the Hawks’ first six points, but Perth went on a 7-0 run to lead 12-6.

The Cats did a good job of taking away their opponents’ transition offence and were finding holes in Wollongong’s defence at the other end.

The Hawks fell behind by seven before fighting back to trail 20-16 at quarter-time.

McLeod used his first time-out with his team down 25-21 four minutes into the second period.

Wollongong’s first three-pointer didn’t come until back-up guard Luke Martin knocked one down from long range with five minutes left in the first half.

But every time the home side pulled to within a point, the

Cats kept knocking down crucial baskets.

Wollongong struggled to get anything going at the offensive end and did well to only be down 33-32 at the

main break.

But the Hawks had all the adjustments to make in the second half.

Less then two minutes had expired in the third period when Perth coach Rob Beveridge called timeout with the score at 36-all.

When McLeod signalled for a time-out five minutes later, the Hawks were up 46-44 after Tim Coenraad’s three-point bomb.

Luke Martin drained his third three of the night and the Hawks had a five-point lead.

Tragardh boosted his tally to 20 points and Wollongong were up 54-51 heading into the final quarter.

With the sold-out WEC rocking, the Hawks stretched the margin to seven when Beveridge burned a time-out with under five minutes remaining.

Tragardh was hitting everything, while Davidson was clogging the middle at the defensive end and grabbing every rebound.