They came, they saw, but they didn't quite conquer.
After forcing last Friday's deciding third game in the best-of-three grand final series with Perth, Wollongong and their fans were daring to dream of a championship when the Hawks led by 11 early in the second quarter.
Even when the Wildcats inevitably fought back, the visitors were right in the hunt when they trailed 61-60 with a few minutes remaining in the third quarter.
Full coverage of the Wollongong Hawks GALLERY: Fans welcome home Hawks at SnakepitThat's when the Hawks' hopes of a title swiftly spiralled down the drain.
In those three game-changing minutes, the Cats outscored their opponents 17-3 to take a stranglehold on the match.
A fading Wollongong scored just nine points in the fourth period as the Cats and their supporters started celebrating with more than five minutes to play.
After upstaging Perth to lead 31-25 at quarter-time, the Hawks managed just 41 points over the final three periods.
"They did a good job of wearing us down," Wollongong coach Gordie McLeod said.
Grand final defeat is never a pleasant experience. But while Friday's loss prevented the Hawks from capping their fairytale season with a championship, they drew solace from their against-the-odds journey through the regular season and play-offs.
"At the moment it's about enjoying our time in the finals, because it's such a hard road to get there and when you get there you want to enjoy it," McLeod said.
"The guys worked unbelievably hard and we had a great support staff that helped us, as did our fans and sponsors.
"There's disappointment that we didn't get the job done, but we don't want to lose sight of the job we did get done, because there's six teams that didn't get a chance to play in the finals series and that was something really special that we did."
Hawks captain Mat Campbell was playing in his third grand final series and gunning for his second title.
He nailed two three-pointers during his side's impressive run in the first quarter and early part of the second quarter, but the Cats quickly chipped away at the deficit to trail 48-47 at half-time.
When it became apparent in the fourth quarter that the Hawks would lose, Campbell said the realisation hit him hard.
"Straight after the game, it's the worst feeling you can have in basketball," the 33-year-old shooting guard said.
"We threw everything at them and they were too good, and you can't do any more than that.
"We thought we weathered their storm pretty well, but they were able to keep the scoreboard ticking over and made shots. They got their confidence from that and it was always going to be hard.
"The second half was a different game and we couldn't get it done. They hit some big shots and got the crowd into it towards the end of the third quarter.
"They got on a roll and got a few steals and when (Perth import Kevin) Lisch hit that shot right on three-quarter time, it really deflated us.
"We spoke about coming out hard in the fourth, but the legs were starting to get tired and the mental side of the travel and everything sort of caught up with us and we just didn't have enough.
"It's disappointing that we worked so hard and we didn't get that championship in the end, but when you look back, we had a great year and went a lot further than a lot of people thought we could."
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