Perth have consigned the Cairns Taipans to their third successive NBL loss, earning an 87-73 victory at Challenge Stadium.

Wildcats import Shawn Redhage continued his outstanding form for the home side, tallying a game-high 28 points, backed up by centre Paul Rogers and rookie Alex Loughton (both 13 points)

Former Perth guard Stephen Black led the way for the visitors with 21 points, with support from another former Wildcat Rashad Tucker (13) and fellow American Larry Abney (9).

A three-pointer in the opening 40 seconds of the game from Perth guard Peter Crawford gave the home side the impetus to lead for the whole first quarter.

Poor shooting from the Taipans aided the home side's cause, with Cairns hitting just 5-of-21 field goals in the first term, which Perth won 19-15.

It was a situation that continued to plague the visitors, who quickly relied on outside shots and couldn't find any offensive rhythm.

"We got the ball early where we wanted to get it and I thought our big guys did a good job of going to the rim," Taipans coach Alan Black said.

"But we didn't get any joy down there so they must have played very good interior defence, because we looked like we had good inside position and we're going up to make the play and didn't get the calls.

"Once we couldn't get that happening we became a jump-shooting team and when you do that, that is going to hurt you."

Early in the second term, the Wildcats jumped out to an 11-point lead, guided by the strong play of Redhage.

The Taipans were able to respond, cutting a 16-point Perth lead down to 10 at the long break, 46-36.

The Taipans went on a 7-0 run after being down by 12 early in the third period to bring the margin back to a manageable five points, with Stephen Black busy offensively.

He hit 13 points in the third period but, while he was racking up a healthy tally, Redhage hit seven third-quarter points in the last three minutes of the term to give the Wildcats an eight-point lead at the final change.

Holding the Taipans to just 13 points in the final period, the Wildcats secured their fourth win of the season to move into the top four.

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