The Townsville Crocodiles remain in the hunt for a NBL finals spot after overcoming the Perth Wildcats 106-105 in a thrilling encounter at the Swamp.

Perth guard David Bailey had a chance to win the game in the dying seconds but his floater fell short allowing the Crocs to scrape home.

Townsville was led by skipper John Rillie who ignored his troublesome broken toe to post 26 points while Brad Newley matched his contribution.

The visitors were best served by Bailey who produced a fourth quarter surge to finish with 22 points while veteran Tony Ronaldson contributed 16.

Perth tied the game early in the fourth quarter and tensions boiled over soon after when all ten players on court were involved in a melee after Rillie and Wildcats forward Dillon Boucher became entangled chasing a loose ball.

The incident gave the Crocs a much needed jolt with the home side scoring the next 11 points to wrest control back from the Wildcats.

Townsville jumped out of the blocks with Newley playing a starring role in setting up a 12 point halftime lead.

But Perth punished a lacklustre Townsville outfit when they returned to the court, slashing the margin back to one by the final change.

Rillie went on to knock down two crucial three pointers in the final stages and received plenty of praise from coach Ian Stacker for standing up to Boucher, who received an unsportsmanlike foul, and sparking his side.

"At the end of the day John was the one who started that whole incident so I can't speak more highly of him about it," Stacker said.

"No-one really knows how much pain he's in. He's got a broken bone but he wants to win."

Perth coach Scott Fisher refused to blame the foul call for his team's demise.

"I don't blame the refs for making that call," Fisher said.

"It didn't look too good from the bench.

Fisher was more concerned with his team's poor start which allowed Townsville to set up a 13 point quarter time lead.

"That definitely hurt," he said.

"Just a shocking start tonight. Really disappointed the way we started that game. Townsville did exactly what we knew they were going to do.

"You're looking for a lottery ticket if you're looking at coming back from 11, 12, 13 against those guys."

The win keeps the Crocs playoff hopes alive into the new year and coach Stacker isn't giving up hope of a revival in 2006.

"What I take out of that game is that we're going to keep fighting," Stacker said.

"For us to do what we want to do this season we just need to keep fighting.

"We showed tremendous character out there."

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