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Perth Wildcats stopped the winning streak of the Sydney Kings with a bruising last second 87-84 battle at the Sydney Entertainment Center on Wednesday night.
The Kings had put together seven wins in succession and were looking for a club record in the Australian National Basketball League.
They appeared likely to achieve their mark when they established a 13 point lead going into the final quarter but the Wildcats, with Brad Robbins firing, snatched victory in the final 30 seconds.
"Robbins is a very exciting player. It feels like the team has an extra pair of hands when he's on the court," Perth coach Scott Fisher said.
"It was an even battle despite our shocking start to the third quarter."
The Kings were never in front in the first half, levelling the score nine times but unable to edge ahead.Perth were quicker to settle down with Peter Crawford and Paul Rogers causing most of the damage.
The Wildcats led 26-24 at the first quarter and looked likely to surge away after grabbing a six point lead midway through the second quarter until double threes from Dontaye Draper helped the Kings recover to 43-all at the half time break.
Both teams played stifling defence forcing 33 long range shots from a total of 77 attempts during the session.
"Perth had the answers tonight and were the better team. We really wanted to win at home but they beat us at our own game from the three point line in the fourth quarter," said Kings coach Brian Goorjian.
"Robbins and Gerald Brown handled the pressure well and played good defence in the final quarter."
Draper top scored in the match with 23 points with Jason Smith on 14 while for Perth Crawford had 16 points, Brown 15 and Robbins 14.
Crawford and Rogers continued to niggle the Kings and maintained their lead with Draper and Isaiah Victor matching their efforts.
The Sydney team came out firing in the second half with captain Jason Smith sinking successive threes to put the Kings ahead for the first time.
Luke Kendall also found the long range target as Perth lost control and the Kings shot away. It was a bruising third quarter with only 15 scoring shots as the Kings suddenly found the form which had taken them to the top of the competition.
But Perth, coming off a solid win last week showed they could also put away long range shots with Crawford, Robbins and Brown finding the basket.
