The Illawarra Hawks have survived another big haul from red-hot Bryce Cotton to defeat the Perth Wildcats 121-111 and consolidate second position on the NBL ladder.
Cotton, coming off his record-breaking 59-point haul against New Zealand, scored 40 points at Perth's RAC Arena on Friday night - the fourth time he has reached the milestone in his stellar career - but the Hawks had more contributors when it mattered.
Adding injury to insult for the Wildcats, import Kristian Doolittle pulled up with a right groin injury inside the first minute and was unable to continue.
Trey Kell led Illawarra with 26 points, while Wani Swaka Lo Buluk combined 17 points at 88 per cent with some stellar fourth-quarter defence on Cotton, who was restricted to just two layups in the last term after he had 36 on the board at three-quarter-time.
Sam Froling (17 points) and Darius Days (15 points, 11 rebounds) were active in the paint for the Hawks.
"To beat any team on the road you've got to do the one-percenters and the stuff that other teams and players don't want to do," Hawks coach Justin Tatum said.
"We had to find a way to make everything tough for Bryce - he's an exceptional player."
Cotton knocked down his first five shots and had 13 points in a high-octane opening term, at the end of which the Wildcats led 30-29.
Cotton boosted his individual tally to 19 after two quarters as he threatened to give Perth control but Illawarra's bench - led by Darius Days and Lachlan Olbrich - had other ideas.
A 9-0 Hawks run turned a five-point deficit into a four-point lead and a 55-53 half-time cushion.
Mason Peatling stretched Illawarra's buffer to seven points early in the third stanza before the Wildcats came roaring back.
In the space of 42 frantic seconds, Ben Henshall buried two triples before a third attempt rimmed out and was latched onto by Cotton, who soared for a two-handed tipjam to give Perth the lead.
Cotton poured in 19 points during the seesawing, high-scoring term, which the Wildcats won 36-35 to hold sway 91-88 at three-quarter-time.
Swaka Lo Buluk, who wore Cotton like a glove in the last term, produced several big plays in the last three minutes to help the Hawks finally break free and score 18 of the last 25 points.
He drilled a trey, pinched Cotton's pocket and finished athletically on the break twice.
"We needed to compete on the glass but they outrebounded us by 13 and they lived on the foul line (32 free-throw attempts to 18)," Perth coach John Rillie said.
"I thought we competed well, but in the end we weren't playing well enough to win that game."
