The Perth Wildcats have started a run of home NBL games with a hard-earned 92-87 win over defending champions, the Illawarra Hawks.
Even with the Wildcats appearing in control for most of Friday night's contest at their RAC Arena home as they ended up going to the foul line 37 times to Illawarra's 12, the Hawks kept coming.
Four late triples in the final minute kept it interesting and the Hawks got within three, but Perth got the job done at the stripe to win in front of 12,507 fans as part of HoopsFest.
The Wildcats won despite the absence of guards Jaron Rillie and David Duke Jr with Rillie's season appearing over following hamstring surgery.
Duke Jr's return is still unclear from an elbow injury, but the Wildcats have resisted the temptation to sign a replacement with the deadline passing on Friday.
Wildcats coach John Rillie reckoned he was happy to stick with this group, having elected not to bring in an injury replacement.
"You have to trust to trust the guys that you're in the war with every day," he said.
"These guys have scar tissue and they've approached it the right way so that's how we're going to roll and then that gives young especially great confidence that you have belief in them."
The tone was set in the opening period with the Wildcats taking the first nine free throws with Tyler Harvey, Jackson Ball and Will Hickey all collecting two fouls quickly for the Hawks.
Illawarra were playing catch up the rest of the way and outside of a 15-4 burst in the second quarter, made up of five three-pointers from former Perth pair Wani Swaka Lo Buluk and Todd Blanchfield, the Wildcats maintained a degree of control.
They pushed out to a 14-point lead in the third period but the Hawks kept on coming on and late three balls to Hickey (two), Blanchfield and Johny Narkle kept it interesting.
It's a big win for the Wildcats as they improve to 15-10, narrowly behind the fourth placed Melbourne United with six of their last eight games at RAC Arena.
Kristian Doolittle had another strong showing for Perth with 21 points and 11 rebounds with Jo Lual-Acuil Jr adding 20 points and seven boards, Ben Henshall 15 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, and Dylan Windler 11 points and 10 boards.
The Hawks' championship defence is hanging by a thread at 8-16 with a third-straight loss in eighth place as they sorely missed the added scoring punch of unwell scorer QJ Peterson.
Sam Froling (six points, five rebounds) and JaVale McGee (eight points, 14 rebounds) had a limited impact with Blanchfield top-scoring with 16 points, Hickey 14 (seven assists, five rebounds), Swaka Lo Buluk 13 and Tyler Harvey 11 (six assists).
