The Illawarra Hawks have learned the hard way how hard it is to put away the Tasmania JackJumpers but in double overtime they prevailed 108-107 thanks to a late Tyler Harvey three.
The Hawks turned a one-point lead at the half into a 12-point advantage with three minutes to go at MyState Bank Arena despite missing their first 12 three-point attempts.
What happened from there, and for the next 13 minutes of game time, was remarkable.
Milton Doyle had missed all four of his three-point attempts up to then, but after his Tasmania teammates Jordon Crawford (24 points, four assists) and Jack McVeigh (17 points, six rebounds) landed from downtown, he stepped up.
He knocked down two long-range bombs in the final 13 seconds of regulation to tie the scores up at 86-86 and send the game into overtime.
Doyle then looked like he would be the game-winning hero when he hit two more triples on his way to 19 points and six assists.
However, he soon fouled out and Harvey (19 points) was fouled with less than a second left.
The Hawks star guard made all three attempts to tie things up at 99-99 and force a second overtime.
The JackJumpers were already without Doyle and McVeigh who had fouled out, and Will Magnay (13 points, seven rebounds, three blocks) soon joined them after starting the second overtime with a big block on Sam Froling and then a three-point play.
This time it was the Hawks' turn to pull it out of the fire.
A three from Harvey with 30 seconds to go ended up sealing the deal as they won in double overtime to continue their charge under interim coach Justin Tatum.
Illawarra have won four straight and seven of nine under Tatum to sit fourth at 9-9, hot on the heels of the JackJumpers who are 11-11 having lost six of their last eight.
While Tasmania coach Scott Roth wouldn’t question his team's effort, it's the same failings continuing to haunt them.
"The team that was the most disciplined ended up winning really at the end of the day," he said.
"The fight was great to get back into the game and push it to overtime, but then our lack of discipline, shot selection, turnovers and what we're doing haunted us, and will probably continue to haunt us.
"It's probably something that we're going to learn a very valuable or tough lesson from this season."
It was the inside presence of Gary Clark (25 points, 15 rebounds) and Froling (23 points, eight boards) which put the Hawks in the winning position.
Justin Robinson added 21 points and five assists.
Afterwards, Tatum was left relieved how his team pulled the game back out of the fire.
"Just to find a way to grit and grind like that, to have a game in hand, to give it away, to have it again and the back and forth, it's just a big testament to what this group can do," he said.
"I'm really proud of the guys for how they fought it out, it's what we've been working and striving for, and that was a tough game."
