The Illawarra Hawks have clamped down on Bryce Cotton for the second time this season while ending the Perth Wildcats' six-game winning streak with an emphatic 95-77 victory.
The Hawks arrived at Perth's RAC Arena on Thursday, having lost 24 of 27 matches previously at the venue and their past three this season, up against a firing Wildcats outfit who had won six straight to be knocking on the door of top spot.
Right from the outset though, Illawarra were on song and interim coach Justin Tatum made the statement by benching underperforming import point guard Justin Robinson.
The rest of the team responded and for the second time this season, Illawarra focused their defence on denying MVP favourite Cotton the ball.
They double and triple-teamed him to deny him the chance to play match-winner while daring someone else to step up.
Todd Blanchfield (16 points, 3-of-6 from three) enjoyed his return to Perth after being relegated out of the rotation last season. A couple of late threes in the first quarter helped the Hawks lead 28-21.
He added six more quick points in the second quarter and when Tyler Harvey (13 points, four assists) stepped up with a couple of threes too, the Hawks were on song and leading by 22.
They were still up 20 at the half and it wasn’t until seven minutes into the third quarter when Cotton made his first field goal for Perth.
He had missed his first five shots and finished the game with 13 points on 2-of-12 after seven points on 1-of-9 the last time the teams met.
Illawarra continued to have all the answers with Gary Clark top-scoring with 17 points on 3-of-4 three-point shooting.
Hyunjung Lee enjoyed his starting role with 10 points, four rebounds and three steals with Sam Froling adding 12 points and five boards.
The Hawks improved to 10-12 on the season to be knocking on the door of the top six.
"I'm excited, extremely," coach Tatum said.
"Dropping three games and coming to a place like this and see your team play this well, and as confident as we came out there for 40 minutes, I'm very excited.
"I'm very happy for my group and just hope we can keep pushing."
The Wildcats remain second at 15-8 to slip further behind the 16-6 Melbourne United with Tai Webster scoring 16 points, but most of his work was done early.
They shot just 35 per cent from the field for the game with 7-of-28 from three and 14 turnovers as their winning run came to an end.
Wildcats coach John Rillie was disappointed to not continue their winning form.
"It's disappointing to have been playing some good basketball and come out in a game and perform like that," he said.
"Congrats to them with the way they came out and performed but we just couldn’t really gain any real momentum to put some real scoreboard pressure on them."
