Wildcats prevail over Hawks in Game 3

The Illawarra Hawks threw everything they could at defying history but ultimately two of their former stars were key to the Perth Wildcats advancing to the Grand Final after winning Monday's semi-final Game 3 at RAC Arena 79-71.

After both teams won a game on the opposition's home floor to start the semi-final series, the job was ahead of the Hawks to beat the Wildcats at RAC Arena twice in five days when they had only won twice ever in the building.

At half-time they looked no chance with Todd Blanchfield having put up 21 points for the Wildcats and the home team leading 46-32. But the Hawks came up huge to start the third quarter and for much of the night they showed great heart and spirit while getting little from Tyler Harvey and Justinian Jessup.

Harvey and Jessup ended up combining for just 18 points on 6/21 shooting, but the Hawks continued to fight and did get back within four points late in the game, but it was then another of their former starts instrumental in Perth prevailing.

Mitch Norton was under a cloud with a hip injury coming into the game, but all night his defence on Harvey was stifling. Then in the fourth quarter, he hit two massive threes and scored 10 of his 15 points for the game.

He also dove for two loose balls to gain possession despite troubled by his hip and he kept the 'Cats on top before emerging development player Luke Travers sealed the deal.

That was enough for the Wildcats to win by eight without Bryce Cotton and keep their chances of a championship three-peat alive while the Hawks lost no admirers for their fight shown under Brian Goorjian out west.

Todd Blanchfield had 21 of his 24 points in the first half for Perth to go with six rebounds, three steals and two assists while John Mooney stood tall with another 16 points and 14 rebounds.

Mitch Norton ended up with 15 points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals while Clint Steindl added eight points, Luke Travers seven and Jesse Wagstaff six.

Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson was beaming with pride to get to a Grand Final without Bryce Cotton.

"I'm just so proud of the guys. Just with the effort and how they played, and carried themselves led by Mitch Norton who is just as tough as nails," Gleeson said.

"To get into a Grand Final without your best player, it speaks volumes for the character of the team. We withstood a pretty big storm there in the second half and I'm just really proud."

Sam Froling came up huge for Illawarra with 14 points, seven rebounds and four blocked shots with Tyler Harvey finishing with 10 points, Justin Simon nine points, 11 rebounds and four assists, Daniel Grida nine points, and Justinian Jessup eight points.

Brian Goorjian, too, had nothing but pride in his team's fighting performances all season long.

"I'm really proud of the team honestly. We're not at the point yet where we execute stuff real great in the half court and that's what it came down to at the end of the day," Goorjian said.

"They are better than we are in that aspect of the game, but sometimes you can have that covered and have a group that quits with what went on in the first half. This group isn’t real polished yet and has got a long way to go as far as structure, but man, all year and tonight they have a crack. 

"We just wanted to display that the pressure was on them and we didn’t want to worry about the scoreboard, we just wanted to give everything we had tonight and not leave anything. We wanted to give all the effort and hustle we had, and I thought we did that."

Brian Goorjian mixed up his starting opting for Daniel Grida over AJ Ogilvy, and it worked with the Hawks racing to a 9-4 start including four quick Sam Froling points and a triple from Justinian Jessup leading to a Trevor Gleeson timeout.

From there, the Wildcats hit the next 10 points with eight of them from Todd Blanchfield. Clint Steindl and Kevin White knocked down threes too and the 'Cats were in control 23-15 ending the quarter scoring 19 of the last 25 points.

Illawarra started the second term on fire again with threes to Tyler Harvey and Tim Coenraad. But again a timeout from Gleeson turned the momentum and Perth came out with the next six points to be out to an eight-point lead.

Blanchfield remained on fire for Perth either shooting threes or getting to the foul line, Steindl made another triple too and then leading into half-time the Hawks were rocked with Harvey picking up a fourth foul while contesting an offensive rebound.

Combine that with the Wildcats leading 46-32 with Blanchfield putting up 21 points and with them dominating the boards with 20 to nine, and it was going to take a remarkable turnaround from Illawarra.

And what a turn the game underwent in the third quarter. Illawarra came out scoring the first 12 points including a monster slam from Sam Froling over Mooney.

That made it a two-point ball game and while the Wildcats did steady somewhat, their lead was cut back to four by three quarter-time and the Grand Final spot was right up for grabs.

The Wildcats just about put the game out of reach of the Hawks, though, starting the fourth quarter with 11 straight points after Harvey hit a three. When Norton hit his second triple of the quarter, the 'Cats were still up 12 with 4:30 left.

The Hawks weren’t done yet. They upped the pressure and delivered a 6-0 run before again it was Norton who drove and scored up the other end. But Illawarra was sticking around and when Jessup finally connected from deep, it was again a four-point game with two minutes left.

It was still four points with a minute to go after two Jessup free-throws, but it was Luke Travers who sealed the deal. Grabbing the defensive rebound, he ran the length of the floor and flushed it with Harvey not wanting to get his fifth foul.

That put Perth up six and they won by eight after a Mooney dunk on a Travers assist to keep their three-peat hopes alive against the brave Hawks.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL FINALS 2021
SEMI FINALS GAME 3

PERTH WILDCATS 79 (Blanchfield 24, Mooney 16, Norton 15)

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 71 (Froling 14, Harvey 10, Simon 9, Grida 9) 

BOX SCORE