The Perth Wildcats played the last four minutes without their most prolific scorer yet came from behind to defeat the Townsville Crocodiles 80-75 at Challenge Stadium.

Shawn Redhage was called for two quick fouls and fouled out with 4min 24sec on the game clock when the Crocodiles were two points ahead.

But the Wildcats grabbed back the lead with some quickfire scoring from Brad Robbins and Peter Crawford.

Crawford, who had struggled with his accuracy all night and made three of his 15 field goal attempts, hit two vital three-point shots to snuff out the Crocodiles' chances of victory.

When Redhage left the court he had 26 points to be the game's highest scorer. The best for the Crocodiles was John Rillie with 15.

The game ended the Wildcats two-game losing streak and ended the Crocodiles two-game winning sequence.

The Perth defence suffocated the Crocodiles in the first term not allowing them any space inside the paint or any freedom from outside the three-point line.

Playing without injured big man Alex Loughton for the second game in a row, Redhage took on even more responsibility in the first quarter as he poured on 12 points, including two three-pointers, to help his side to a seven-point quarter time lead.

Rillie's first points - a typical three-point bomb deep into the second term - reduced the Wildcats margin to three as Williams showed added confidence and lifted his intensity to become the Crocs highest scorer at the half with six.

Redhage hit the final two points of the first half to give the Cats a 40-35 advantage and to take his personal tally to 16.

Crocodiles centre Ben Pepper through some weight around in third term, scoring seven of the first nine points of the quarter and the Crocs led 65-61 lead at the final change.

Williams didn't score in the second half, leaving his six points in the second quarter his only contribution.

Townsville coach Trevor Gleeson said the Wildcats wanted to win the game more than they did.

"I was pretty happy that we stayed in touch given we played so poorly," Gleeson said.

"I didn't think we played well but in saying that we were still two points up with five minutes to play and we were still in a position to win but Perth wanted it more.

"There were some huge loose balls and Peter Crawford got one in the corner and that sparked the crowd to get into it and I thought we had subdued them in the third and fourth period. That sparked them and when it comes down to it they wanted to win more than we did and that was disappointing."

Perth coach Scott Fisher admitted his team didn't shoot well but their defensive efforts got the job done.

"We won that game because we kept that team from scoring," Fisher said.

"They are a high scoring team and we held them to 10 points in the last quarter. I thought it was a great defensive effort and we ran our offensive most of the time pretty well. There was some nervous stuff there and I think that win will help get that out."

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