PERTH Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson has praised his team’s ruthless attitude after they smashed a weary and demoralised Illawarra 101-61 at RAC Arena.

The Hawks arrived in Perth after playing a quadruple overtime game against Melbourne on Friday night and without any players being given exit rows on their flight from Sydney.

Perth stormed clear to lead by 12 points at quarter time and refused to ease up. They scored 19 unanswered points to start the last quarter and take top spot on the NBL ladder.

Gleeson said the players learned a valuable lesson about maintaining dominance during last month’s 58-point loss to the Utah Jazz.

“I still remember being down by 50 and them still running the lanes hard as if it’s the first play,” Gleeson said.

“That’s the best in the world. If we can glean something from that, it’s fantastic. It’s certainly something we can take with us.

“I was pleased how we were able to maintain that intensity to win the four quarters.

“It was a pleasing aspect of that. Hopefully we can keep building on it.”

Perth’s scoring depth was evident as they topped 100 points late in the game. The Wildcats achieved that feat only twice last season.

The bench contributed 48 points and five players scored in double figures. Terrico White led the way with 20 while Bryce Cotton (15), Nick Kay, (14), Mitch Norton (12) and Angus Brandt (11) also contributed strongly.

“Last year we were too much on Bryce’s shoulders,” Gleeson said.

“To be successful and to win a championship, you’ve got to have an even scoring round. If people get hot, we give them the ball. But you’ve got to have scoring options.

“We thought it wasn’t spread enough last year so hopefully we can continue to have five or six guys in double figures.”

Illawarra coach Rob Beveridge said he knew his players had failed to recover from the lengthy match against Melbourne and the massive loss was predictable. But he was furious about the NBL’s travel protocols.

Beveridge revealed the club immediately contacted the league after landing in Perth and were told exit rows would be provided for players in future.

The exit rows during Perth’s flight home from South Australia on Friday were shared between the Wildcats and WNBL players from the Adelaide Lightning.

Hawks import Brian Conklin said the situation was unacceptable.

“It’s tragic,” he said.

“You’ve got Dave (Andersen) who is seven foot, AJ (Ogilvy) is seven foot, we’re a professional club and we’re riding in no exit rows. I don’t know what that’s about.

“It’s awful. I’ve got pretty broad shoulders too so I’m fighting with somebody for a little piece so I can put my elbow on top of the arm rest. It’s ridiculous.”