The Perth Wildcats clawed their way back up the NBL ladder with a nail-biting 99-98 victory over the Canberra Cannons at the AIS Arena.

Perth lost top spot on Wednesday after a 102-72 mauling at the hands of the Sydney Kings, but they came back with a narrow win over Canberra in the final minutes of the game, ending the Cannon's unbeaten record at home this season.

The two teams leapfrogged for the first half of the game, the lead changing hands twelve times.

Canberra went on a 10-2 run in the opening minutes, moving to an early lead.

But then Perth's forward Brett Wheeler and guard James hareby found their form, while the Cannons struggled to find the basket, although a ten-point quater from Mike Chappell helped send Canberra into the first break two points in front.

Perth's Tony Ronaldson waited until the last minute of the half to put any points on the board, but then added seven in quick succession, putting the Wildcats in the lead 55-51 at the long break.

The Cannons slipped further behind until captain C J Bruton, sidelined all week with a knee injury, joined the scoring and helped Canberra wrest back the lead four minutes into the third ten.

The Wildcats looked as though they were in for another mauling as cannons forward Brad Williams grabbed a CJ rebound, from the charity line scored two and opened Canberra save.

The Wildcats started the last quarter trailing by five, but then seven points from Guard Ricky Grace and a well placed shot from James Harvey with 5-1/2 mins left in the clock saw Perth grab back the lead.

Two 3-pointers from Dave Thomas and Bruton kept the Cannons hot on Perth's heels and another basket from Williams tied the scores with 9 seconds left to play.

Perth's Rob Freaster and Bruton traded free throw points to keep the scores even.

But with seven seconds left on the clock Harvey landed his second shot from behind the charity line to put Perth in the lead, and Bruton missed canberra's last chance to make up the difference.

Grace top-scored for the visitors with 19 points while Harvey made 28 and import Sunday Adebayo made 14.

Chapell had a game-high 24 points and Bruton 18, guard McHill made an astounding 17 points, compared to his average of 4 points per game.

Canberra's Dave Thomas was the top rebounder with 14 and 16 points.

Perth coach Alan Black said the team's poor start to the match was probably a hangover from the loss to Sydney, but the Wildcats still had to work on their road record.

"We've started poorly on the road nearly every single game and that's something we have obviously got to address," he said.

Canberra travel to Melbourne tomorrow to face the Melbourne Tigers, whom they have not beaten at home since March 1999.

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