Courageous and committed to the very end, the Wollongong Hawks were knocked out of the NBL title race by Perth on Sunday at WIN Entertainment Centre.

For a team widely tipped to finish last in 2013-14, the Hawks silenced the doubters to claim a finals berth.

But they were out-classed by the minor premiers, whose 80-61 victory on Sunday completed a 2-0 sweep of the best of three semifinal series.

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The Hawks gave the Cats all they could handle throughout a hard-fought first half, leading by three late in the second quarter.

Perth scored the final nine points of the first half and never looked back, turning the second half into a clinic and underlining their status as championship favourites.

’’We had a fantastic year. We got beaten by a better team,’’ coach Gordie McLeod said.

The Hawks put up a fight in game one in Perth, drawing to within three points in the final quarter before going down by 12.

Game two had all the signs of going down to the wire after the lead changed hands several times in the first half.

But the Wildcats played at a different level in the second half, scoring at will at one end and constantly disrupting Wollongong with aggressive defence at the other end.

Veteran forward Shawn Redhage was superb with 26 points, including a perfect six of six three-pointers.

NBL MVP favourite James Ennis scored 15 of his 20 points in the second half, while Jermaine Beal added 15.

Tim Coenraad led the Hawks with 15 points, as sharpshooters Rotnei Clarke (11) and Oscar Forman (three) were all but shut down by the Cats.

Perth advanced to the grand final series and will take on either Adelaide or Melbourne.

Hawks forward Dave Gruber played the opening minutes like he’d been sprung from a Jack-in-the-box, grabbing seven rebounds and scoring six points in the first quarter.

The Hawks were down 5-2 early before scoring seven unanswered points.

Perth came back to tie the game at 11-all, but Tyson Demos nailed a three and Kevin Tiggs hit two free throws to help Wollongong to a 16-13 quarter-time lead.

Redhage put the Cats ahead after breaking free for back to back threes early in the second period.

That spurt was quickly trumped by threes to Rhys Martin and Coenraad.

Redhage remained red-hot from three-point range, splashing his fifth three to put the Cats back in front.

The lead changed hands again after Clarke’s long three, but Ennis exploded through the lane for a dunk and Matt Knight hit a jump-shot to put Perth up by two with 90 seconds left in the half.

Wollongong turned over possession on the consecutive plays, allowing the visitors to skip out to a 39-33 half-time lead.

Redhage was the story with 19 points (five of five threes), while Clarke led the Hawks with nine.

Significantly, Forman had zero points after being closely guarded on the perimeter.

The Cats grabbed 17 rebounds to Wollongong’s 15 and made 47 per cent of their shots compared to 37 for the Hawks.

The writing was on the wall for the Hawks when the margin swelled to 14 after four minutes of the third period.

Ennins and Beal were particularly punishing, sharing the scoring load to stretch the lead to 63-40 with two minutes to play in the quarter.

When the period ended, Wollongong were staring at a 21-point deficit.

Ennis and Beal combined for 22 of the Cats’ 26 points in the third quarter.