It may have felt like deja vu for Illawarra fans on Thursday night, with stars Bryce Cotton and Vic Law firing the Wildcats to a 94-80 victory over the Hawks at the WIN Entertainment Centre.
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Cotton and Law combined for 52 points and 14 rebounds to guide Perth to victory in Wollongong for the second time in a week. Cotton was superb in the first half, scoring 20 points on the way to a game tally of 28, while Law mustered 24 points after a slow start.
After leading by two at half time, Perth turned it on in the third quarter, scoring 31-20 to open up a 74-62 lead at the final break.
The visitors then edged their opponents 19-18 in the last term to round out the win.
Cotton was full of praise for Law after the game.
"It was a typical Vic performance. He's gelling very well, he makes big shots when we need it. And the one thing I like about him is he plays both ends just as hard. He plays hard offensively and defensively as well, and rats out some pretty big rebounds or loose balls," he said.
"He's a hell of a player and hopefully he can continue to play the way he's been playing for us."
The Hawks had their chances, but shot a cold 31/82 from the field, including at 28 per cent from deep. Conversely, Perth had less opportunities and shot 32/61 from the field.
Antonius Cleveland was Illawarra's standout scoring an NBL career-high of 22 points, while Justinian Jessup (17 points) returned to form after a quiet performance in Monday's win over Adelaide.
The result means the Hawks have now lost three of their past four games, including two defeats to Perth during that time.
"It looks like, over the coast of 40 minutes over the last two games, our match ups are just difficult with them. The match up with Bryce and the match up with Vic, we've struggled in both games," Hawks coach Brian Goorjian said.
"And I don't think you could fault Justinian's effort, I thought he put a lot of effort into it, and I thought Xavier (Rathan-Mayes) did too. But it always seemed, no matter if we went small or big, we always had a match up issue. And usually with our advantage size wise, with (Sam) Froling or Duop (Reath), we had nothing happening there. Five points of out that, we've got to be better. I'm not going at them... I just didn't think we did a good job there with our bigs.
"We've got some work to do to beat this team."
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Cleveland set the tone early on Thursday night, managing a big block and scoring Illawarra's first five points as they led 5-3.
Momentum continued to roll with the Hawks, with Tyler Harvey and Duop Reath sinking threes, before Cleveland's empathic dunk and back-to-back Rathan-Mayes baskets helped them take a 17-11 advantage. However, the Wildcats lifted through Cotton and Todd Blanchfield, who hit back-to-back threes to draw level at 17-17.
Cleveland and Matt Hodgson then traded buckets, before Harry Froling drained three-pointer. But Cotton's buzzer-beating floating jump shot saw Perth cut the deficit to 22-21 at the first break.
Cleveland finished the quarter with nine points and three rebounds, while Cotton had seven points to his name.
The Hawks burst out of the blocks in the second, going on a 11-5 run. Cleveland was the inspiration with four points, one intercept and an assist, while Cotton was a huge threat in Perth's offense.
The game then swiftly turned into a shootout, with Rathan-Mayes and Jessup trading threes with Blanchfield and Cotton, before Blanchfield's basket plus one cut the deficit to 44-41.
But Perth weren't done yet, with Law and Cotton lifting their side to a 46-44 lead at half time.
It was the Cotton show in the second quarter, scoring 13 points in his first half tally of 20. Blanchfield also had 11 points for Perth, while Cleveland (13 points, four boards) was Illawarra's standout.
The end-to-end action continued in the third, highlighted by threes to Cotton and Jessup, as the Wildcats held a 52-51 lead.
After a slow start to the night, Jessup continued to heat up, inspiring the Hawks to a 7-2 run to grab a 58-54 advantage.
After his red-hot second quarter in their last encounter, Law again then stepped up - this time in the third - scoring seven of the game's next eight points as the visitors led 63-58.
Perth then scored nine of the last 12 points, before Harvey halted that run with a three. However, Blanchfield's late basket from beyond the arc gave the visitors a 75-65 at three-quarter time.
The Wildcats came firing out of the gates in the fourth, going on a 6-2 run to grab an 81-69 advantage.
Illawarra then settled, thanks to Tim Coenraad, Harvey and Cleveland combining for four consecutive free throws, before Norton's lay up and Jesse Wagstaff's three gave the Wildcats an 86-73 lead.
The Wildcats then put their foot to the floor late in the game, going on an 18-7 run to secure the 14-point win.
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Joshua Bartlett
A sporting fanatic who is keen to promote all codes in the Illawarra and abroad. Mercury's chief football reporter.
A sporting fanatic who is keen to promote all codes in the Illawarra and abroad. Mercury's chief football reporter.
