Bryce Cotton's magical run of 40-point games has come to an abrupt end as Illawarra crushed Perth 120-88 at the WIN Entertainment Centre.
Cotton entered Sunday's NBL match having scored 59, 40, 49 and 44 points in his past four outings - a feat not seen since Andrew Gaze did it in 1991.
Hopes of Cotton matching Al Green and Gaze by making it five straight 40-point games looked good when he scored 13 in the opening quarter against the Hawks.
But he was kept scoreless from that point as the Hawks ran away with victory.
Trey Kell lit it up for Illawarra with a career-high 31 points in front of 5462 fans, while Sam Froling (18 points) and Tyler Harvey (15 points) were also important.
The result improved their record to 11-5, ensuring they stay on top of the ladder.
The Wildcats, missing key players Kristian Doolittle (groin) and Tai Webster (hamstring), slipped to 10-9.
"To hold somebody as exceptionally great offensively as Bryce is, it's kudos to the team," Illawarra coach Justin Tatum said of his team's effort to curtail Cotton.
"We know that Bryce is like a microwave, he's cooking right now. And it's great to see as a fan.
"But when we're playing against him, we want to make everything difficult."
Perth's biggest loss in the 40-minute NBL era was a 35-point defeat to Adelaide in 2018.
They were in danger of equalling that in Wollongong, but Michael Harris hit a buzzer-beating three-pointer to ensure the final margin was 32.
"The easy answer is (it's) a blip," Wildcats coach John Rillie said of what the loss means.
"We looked at this as a great challenge to see where we are at the moment, and we came up very short today.
"That's a very good reminder in this league that if you get a little ahead of yourself or you think things are going too good, you get smacked in the mouth like that."
Cotton took almost five minutes to open his account, but it sparked a flurry of points as the star guard went to quarter time on 5-of-8 shooting.
Perth trailed by just one point with 96 seconds remaining in the term, but the Hawks nailed a pair of big triples as part of a 10-2 run to take a 37-28 lead into the first break.
Kell nailed 16 points in the second term, including two long-range bombs, as Illawarra went into halftime with a dominant 63-48 advantage.
With Cotton going cold and missing his final eight field-goal attempts, the Wildcats couldn't find a way back into the contest, with both teams clearing their benches in the final quarter once the result was beyond doubt.
