Two days after Hawks management cut tenacious forward Dave Gruber from the playing roster, the team offered timid resistence against the reigning champions.

Wollongong trailed by as many as 21 in the fourth period and, aside from a promising opening quarter, struggled to function as a unit all night.

Since beating Townsville in the first round, the Hawks have lost six in a row and don’t look like climbing off the bottom of the ladder any time soon.

Wildcats guard Jermaine Beal was unstoppable with 25 points on 11/18 shooting, veteran forward Shawn Redhage finished with 14 and Earnest Ross had his best game of the season with 13.

Oscar Forman and Jahii Carson top-scored for the home side with 14 apiece, while Tim Coenraad posted 13 points and nine rebounds.

Hawks guard Rhys Martin had five points, five assists and two steals in his comeback game. Wollongong now have to drag themselves off the canvas to face Melbourne United on the road on Sunday.

``They pushed us out of our stuff. We’re really struggling to get through our offence,'' coach Gordie McLeod said.

``We’re working hard at practice but we’re not transferring it over to the game.’’

Beal was cooking early, scoring his team’s first seven points.

Forman paced the Hawks with a couple of baskets off the dribble but Redhage found his range at the other end to give Perth a five-point lead after five minutes of the first quarter.

Martin made his first appearance, subbing in for Gary Ervin and finding Forman a three-pointer a minute later.

Beal boosted his tally to 12 before sinking another leaning jump-shot to finish with 14 for the quarter.

Martin dribbled out the closing seconds before sinking a three on the buzzer to make it 23-all at the end of the period.

Redhage grabbed the baton from Beal, scoring seven straight points and prompting McLeod to burn a time-out.

The Hawks’ offence started coming apart, as passes went directly into the hands of a Wildcat three times in three minutes.

Tension mounted on the bench and in the stands, as Perth’s lead swelled to 13.

Wollongong turned over possession seven times in the second period and made just 3/13 shots.

The Cats had three turnovers and hit 10/20 shots for a comfortable 47-36 half-time lead.

Beal had 19 points and Redhage was up to 14.

Forman led the Hawks with 11, while Carson had seven.

The third quarter was much of the same before a re-energised Hawks trimmed the deficit to five.

But a couple of defensive lapses allowed the Cats to skip out to a 62-51 lead with a quarter to play.