Kristian Doolittle has proved unstoppable in the second half to lead the Perth Wildcats to a hard-fought 106-99 road win over the Illawarra Hawks to close in on fourth place in the NBL standings.
The Wildcats had to come from 13 points down shortly before halftime at the WIN Entertainment Centre in Wollongong on Saturday night, but Doolittle scored 21 of his 26 points in the second half to help down the Hawks.
The win improves the Cats to 18-11 for the season and is another dagger blow to the championship defence of Illawarra (10-18), who trail the sixth-placed Tasmania JackJumpers (12-17).
Wildcats coach John Rillie was proud was how his team shook off a less than ideal start to the game.
"That wasn't us in the first quarter and then the way we approached it for the rest of the game, momentum swung in our favour," he said.
"We just stuck with it and with the emotion we stayed composed, and executed well in the fourth quarter."
The Hawks had the game on their terms for a lot of the first half, leading 30-25 by quarter-time before pushing that advantage out to 12 with an 11-3 run midway through the second quarter.
It was 13 points not long before the half, but the Wildcats stayed in touch with the last seven points to cut Illawarra's lead to 54-48.
Doolittle took over for the Wildcats in the third quarter with 15 points as his team put up 32, including the last eight to head into the three-quarter time break leading 80-74.
Even after Illawarra hit the last six points of the final quarter to tie things up again, Perth continued to have all the answers, with Doolittle the major difference as he led the Cats to a hard-earned seven-point road win.
On top of Doolittle's 26 points, five rebounds and five assists on 10-of-13 shooting, fellow import Dylan Windler had 22 points, five boards and five assists while shooting 9-of-13.
Emerging back-court player Elijah Pepper (19 points, four steals) and Ben Henshall (17 points, nine rebounds, six assists) were important too, as was centre Jo Lual-Acuil Jr with 14 points, four rebounds and two blocks.
QJ Peterson finished with 22 points, six assists and five rebounds for the Hawks, who face a challenge to finish sixth.
JaVale McGee contributed 18 points and 11 rebounds, Tyler Harvey had 13 points, Wani Swaka Lo Buluk contributed 12 points and five rebounds, and Sam Froling amassed 12 points and seven boards.
Hawks coach Justin Tatum felt his team shot themselves in the foot in the second half.
"I'm a little disappointed and felt that we should have given four quarters worth of effort instead of two, but I tip my hat off to Perth," he said.
"We stopped believing in our scout and our guys just went away from it. We've got to stick with what's been working for us."
