The Perth Wildcats remain in the thick of the NBL play-off race after withstanding a second-half comeback from the Illawarra Hawks to win 107-97 in Wollongong.
The Wildcats marked the end of 2022 with their fifth win in the past six games, running up their highest score of the season at WIN Entertainment Centre on Saturday night to boost their win-loss record to 10-8.
Looking to put the disappointment of Tuesday's overtime loss in Brisbane behind them, Perth responded with their best-scoring opening quarter of the campaign then outpointed Illawarra 31-16 in the second to lead by 17 at halftime.
The Hawks threw down the challenge to the visitors in the second half, Tyler Harvey inspiring a 28-14 surge in the third term to reduce Perth's advantage to three points before drilling a three-pointer at the start of the final quarter to level the scores at 75-75.
But Corey Webster swung the momentum back in Perth's favour with a series of clutch jump shots to secure the win, the New Zealand international connecting on 5-of-6 three-point attempts on the way to a team-high 25 points.
"We made that one hard for ourselves. You know, we had a big lead at halftime, we had an opportunity to blow them out and we didn't capitalise on that," Webster told ESPN after the win.
"Nonetheless that was a great win for us to bounce back from that Brisbane game."
Illawarra made a promising start to the contest by ripping down six offensive rebounds in the opening five minutes, making the most of their second-chance opportunities to edge ahead 18-11.
But Perth closed the first quarter with a 30-28 lead by shooting at 60 per cent from the field, Webster and TaShawn Thomas the key contributors with seven points apiece.
The Wildcats made their move in the second term with Brady Manek and Bryce Cotton powering the offence, Perth making seven three-pointers for the half while committing just two turnovers to take a 61-44 buffer into the main break.
Illawarra's hopes of an upset victory were made all the more difficult when Peyton Siva left the court clutching his shoulder after a collision with Thomas late in the second quarter, the import guard ruled out for the rest of the match.
The Hawks opened the second half with renewed vigour and Harvey stepped up with a run of eight straight points to help Illawarra recover from a 17-point deficit midway through the third quarter to tie the game early in the final stanza.
But Webster's hot shooting and strong contributions from Cotton (24 points, six assists) and Manek (23 points, 10 rebounds) consigned the bottom-ranked Hawks to their sixth successive defeat.
