A STUNNING performance from Bryce Cotton has the Perth Wildcats just one win away from another NBL grand final.

Cotton scored a career-high 34 points in tonight’s 91-69 win over Cairns in Queensland to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three game semi-final series.

He blitzed Cairns and had 21 points by half-time. That was the second-most by any player this season.

Cotton reached his personal best of 28 points with two minutes to play in the third quarter and continued running amok to send the Wildcats into raging favouritism for a grand final berth.

His tally was the most in a final by a Wildcat since Shawn Redhage’s 35 points in 2008.

Cotton’s combination with Casey Prather gave the Wildcats an edge. Prather finished with 22 points as the dynamic duo continued their strong recent form.

Prather had 11 points at quarter-time. Matt Knight was also damaging with 14 points and six rebounds.

The Wildcats entered the game having won only three of their last 10 finals away from home. Their last finals win on-the-road was against Illawarra in 2014.

Having finished third on the ladder, they faced the prospect of two trips to Cairns to advance to the grand final if they lost tonight.

But that was never on the cards. Cairns reduced the 20-point deficit to seven points during the third quarter but Perth surged clear again.

Perth went into the game hoping to quell former Wildcat Nate Jawai’s influence.

Jawai was the difference between the teams two weeks ago when he dominated under the basket.

Jawai won the first rebound of the night and looked confident, but his foul problems from last week re-surfaced.

Jawai fouled out in less than five minutes last week. He had two fouls in less than four minutes and lost confidence.

He finished the game with four points, four rebounds and four fouls.

Cairns import Tony Mitchell also had issues. He had three fouls at quarter-time and that came from less than three minutes on court. He didn’t re-appear until the final period.

Perth’s defensive work was just as strong as their attacking game. They pressured Cairns into basic ball handling errors, the Taipans shot at just 28 per cent from the field in the first quarter and lacked consistency with their play for the remainder of the night.

The eagerly anticipated battle between retiring veterans Shawn Redhage and Mark Worthington was a non-event. They spent only 94 seconds on the court together.