The Perth Wildcats made a blistering start and then a monstrous finish beating the South East Melbourne Phoenix to open the NBL finals 122-105 in a wildly high-scoring affair.
The Wildcats made a 20-4 start at Perth High Performance Centre for their Seeding Qualifier, with RAC Arena unavailable, but by half-time the Phoenix were leading 67-62 in the highest scoring first half in a 40-minute NBL game.
Perth, though, outscored South East Melbourne 35-9 either side of three-quarter-time to earn more than two weeks' break before playing Melbourne United in the playoffs.
The Phoenix have one more chance to book a spot against the Illawarra Hawks when they host either Sydney or Adelaide on Sunday.
Entering hostile territory, the Phoenix couldn't have asked for a worse start with coach Josh King challenging an out of bounds call on his guard Owen Foxwell after just 19 seconds.
Soon after the Wildcats scored 16 points in a row, but once Angus Glover hit the floor everything changed for the Phoenix.
He would score 15 points the rest of the quarter including four three-point bombs and 11 points in a 14-0 run.
The visitors then produced 39 points in the second quarter to go into the main break impressively leading 67-62.
There were plenty of whistles too with the Wildcats taking 28 free throws in the first half to the Phoenix's 21 but it had been a 63-42 turnaround after Perth's 20-4 start.
It was blow for blow for a lot of the third quarter but the Wildcats finished it on a 13-4 run sparked by Keanu Pinder (35 points, 11 rebounds) who was thriving on his battle with Matt Hurt (24 points, three steals).
The 'Cats led by six heading into the fourth which soon became 23 when Pinder threw down a dunk in transition inside the first five minutes to set up the 17-point win.
In a game featuring a combined 227 points, 66 of them came at the foul line, but the Wildcats simply had too many weapons.
Afterwards, King felt the 77 foul attempts for both teams ruined the spectacle.
"I'm exhausted because the game took so long because there was so many free throws taken," he said.
"I'm just learning the league and they were called on both sides, they shot 42 and we shot 35, and it was an ugly game on both sides."
Five-time MVP Bryce Cotton finished with 27 points, six rebounds and four assists, Kristian Doolittle 20 points, 11 boards and five assists, Dylan Windler 13 points, nine rebounds and three blocks, and Ben Henshall 11 points, five boards and four assists.
"We came in and took care of business the way we were supposed to," said a happy Wildcats coach John Rillie.
"We've been playing well of late and the guys did a great job in the second half to wrestle back momentum so I think with this team we're slowly starting to see the trust and belief with each other out on the floor."
Glover ended the night with 25 points for the Phoenix on 6-of-9 from deep with Nathan Sobey adding 22 points, eight assists and five rebounds, and Next Star Malique Lewis 12 points and six boards.