Hawks stun Wildcats, snap six-game winning streak

The Illawarra Hawks have snapped the Perth Wildcats' six-game winning streak, riding a ferocious start to a shock 100-82 victory in Wollongong.

The Hawks set up one of the biggest upsets of the NBL season with a 12-0 opening which they turned into an unassailable 38-18 quarter-time lead at the WIN Entertainment Centre on Friday night.

Emerging local centre Sam Froling scored 21 points and was unstoppable early, before imports Gary Clark and Tyler Harvey combined to ward off any hope of a late Perth miracle.

American Jordan Usher topscored off the bench for the Wildcats with 17, while Illawarra's magnificent defence reduced Perth star Bryce Cotton to a paltry seven points on just 1-of-9 shooting when he had been averaging 30.2 points over the 'Cats winning streak.

Froling's pick-and-roll partnership with Harvey gave Keanu Pinder fits in the paint as the Hawks moved into pole position early.

Hawks' Next Star AJ Johnson blew by Kristian Doolittle and threw down a thunderous dunk over likely No.1 NBA Draft pick Alex Sarr before seldom-used reserve Davo Hickey followed some hard-nosed defence on Cotton with a banked prayer on the quarter-time bell to cap one of the finest quarters in Illawarra's recent history.

The Hawks out-rebounded Perth 15-6 for the term while their bench outscored the Wildcats' 20-7.

Perth tidied up their rebounding in the second term, started creating turnovers and trimmed the home side's advantage to 58-43 at half-time.

Illawarra's cushion was back out to 18 points before the Wildcats went on a 12-0 tear to cut the margin to single digits.

Cotton, the three-time league MVP, scored his only field goal late in the third period with a triple.

Perth outscored the hosts 47-38 in the middle two quarters and threatened to steamroll their way to a come-from-behind victory, but Harvey and Clark had all the answers as Illawarra dominated down the stretch to score their fourth win of the season, and second in three games under interim coach Justin Tatum.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 10

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 100 (Froling 21, Clark 17, Harvey 16)

PERTH WILDCATS 82 (Usher 17, Sarr 13, Wagstaff 13)

BOX SCORE