The Adelaide 36ers are within striking distance of the NBL top four after comprehensively defeating the Perth Wildcats 97-84.
Pockets of first-half brilliance and a dominant 23-14 third quarter paved the way for the Sixers' lopsided triumph at Titanium Security Arena.
Demetrius Conger (18 points) continued his recent red-hot run, captain Daniel Johnson (17) and Jacob Wiley had five acrobatic dunks in his 13 points.
With league leading scorer Bryce Cotton (10 points) curtailed, fellow American Terrico White (24) was best for the Wildcats, who suffered their seventh defeat from their past eight matches.
The Wildcats looked good early and jumped to an eight-point lead before completely losing their way on offence.
They missed 13 straight shots to hand control to the Sixers, who accumulated a whopping 20 first-quarter rebounds and led 23-19 at quarter-time thanks to a 14-0 burst.
The 36ers' lead blew out to 11 midway through the second term thanks to a sizzling 52-second run of nine unanswered points, during which Nathan Sobey had two steals and a slam and Wiley threw down two dunks.
The Wildcats responded with a 7-0 run while Cotton's three in the dying seconds sliced the deficit to two points at half-time.It was Perth's last hurrah.
With Conger starting the third stanza productively, Wiley continuing to provide the aerial highlights and the Wildcats drying up again offensively, the Sixers moved ahead 72-61 at three-quarter-time.
White single-handedly did his best to drag the Cats back into the contest but Adelaide remained ruthless until the end to cruise home and draw level with fourth-placed Brisbane on 10 wins.
Adelaide coach Joey Wright praised his team's sterling defensive work on Cotton."He is such a great shooter," Wright said.
"If he can get that ball above his head, there's a really good chance it's going in."We did a great job of chasing Cotton around the court."
Perth coach Trevor Gleeson felt the 36ers' strong rebounding advantage (50-34) was pivotal.
"Rebounding was a big focus for us but in the first quarter they (36ers) got nine offensive rebounds," he said.
"To give 19 offensive rebounds (for the game) to an Adelaide team, it's hard to beat."We didn't do a good job of rebounding the ball or stopping them getting easy points."