Illawarra are walking a finals tightrope without a net after a late-game houdini act failed to reel in Tasmania on Sunday, a 81-77 defeat placing their playoffs hopes on tenterhooks.
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The Hawks trailed by 15 at halftime, and as much as 19 early in the fourth, only to twice draw within two in the final minute on huge triples from Justinian Jessup.
The JackJumpers ultimately held on through five late points to Jack McVeigh, the loss piling pressure on the Hawks return home to take on South East Melbourne on Thursday.
Brian Goorjian's side looked to have righted the ship with a comeback win over the Phoenix last week, their fifth win their previous six games, but a limp first-half effort on Sunday was a giant leap backwards.
They were thoroughly out-hustled in the opening half, the hosts putting up 31 points in the second quarter to lead by 15 halftime.
The Hawks coughed up eight turnovers and gave up seven offensive boards through the first two terms to surrender all iniative to the hosts.
They made a game of it late, but it was too deep a hole, with Goorjian conceding the loss was a tough one to swallow.
"We're not out of it but this is a real kick in the guts, it's one you have to get," Goorjian said.
"On the positive side, there's still nine games to play in this thing. You look at our schedule and it's daunting, but what gives us a chance is the actual fact that we're playing all the teams in the four.
"Whether it be on the road or at home, we've got Sydney twice, we've got Perth, Melbourne [United]. If we lose those games we're out, if we win those games we've got a great chance of getting in.
"Now we play Phoenix at home next game, if you win you're back in it, if you lose you're starting to roll where you're out of this thing.
"Tonight was disappointing but we do play a team in the top four at home on our next one."
Illawarra remain clinging to the edge of the top four, but Goorjian has no doubt his team has the fortitude to make what's now a much steeper climb to the post-season.
"I can honestly say the guys really understand the scenario that they're in," Goorjian said.
"Maybe we did make mistakes in quick shooting the ball or not executing as well as we could, but these guys want it really, really bad. There's no bad signs as far as that side of it goes.
"I liked the way we finished the game, there was no quit in us. We could've let that thing go from 15 to 30 and we didn't, we fought back and gave ourselves a chance to win.
"We were 10 down and they start the [fourth] quarter with two threes, bang, bang and you're 16-17 down and you think 'this thing's done', but there was no quit in them.
"There's other issues, there's other things you can be critical of, but as far as the understanding of the importance of the game, the desperation, the want... I have no question there at all."
Scott Roth's side almost paid for putting the cue in the rack too early, an attempt to burn the clock blunting their offense and opening the door for a 9-0 run for the visitors that brought them back into it.
Xavier Rathan-Mayes managed two steals for two easy buckets for Tyler Harvey in the space of three seconds to cut margin back to four with little more than a minute to play.
Jessup then drained two clutch threes inside the final 42 seconds to keep his side within reach, but it was too little too late, the hosts steadying to see them off.
McVeigh finished with 19 points and six rebounds, while Josh Magette had 11 points, six rebounds and seven assists, but it was captain Clint Steindl's 20 points at 6-9 from long-range that really took the game away from the Hawks.
As a collective, the JackJumpers dropped 14 threes and had 22 assists on 30 field goals in a solid team outing.
Scoreless in the first half, Jessup finished with 15 points and five rebounds, while Antonius Cleveland had 13 points and Duop Reath dropped 12 points and pulled down seven rebounds.
Tyler Harvey led the Hawks scoring with 16 points, but the tally came at 6-19 from the field and a lowly 3-12 from three-point range.
Cleveland picked up where he left off last time out, with an early triple in seven quick points as the Hawks shot out to a 9-2 lead.
The JackJumpers hit back with a 7-0 run of their own, punctuated by a powerful and-one from Josh Adams as the scores locked at nine apiece.
The scoring pace slowed drastically from there, the hosts taking a slender one-point cushion at quarter-time in a low-scoring term.
The pace quickened dramatically to start the second, with a three to Jarrad Weeks and a pair of triples to Steindl prompting Goorjian to call timeout with his side suddenly down by eight.
Steindl splahed another three off yet another Hawks turnover before Harvey got firing, dropping three triples on an 11-3 run that brought the margin back in to three.
It was all the hosts from there, an and-one from Kenyon an exclamation point on a 14-0 run that put his side up by a hefty 15 points at the main break.
Cleveland finally stopped the run to start the third term, but Adams fired straight back from long-range to re-take the running.
Dormant though the first half, Jessup got going with seven points, sparking a 12-3 run that cut things back to 10 and forced Roth into a timeout.
Steindl steadied his side with his fourth three keeping the margin at 10 at three-quarter-time, Reath air-balling his attempt at bringing it back to single digits on the buzzer.
Steindl took it away with consecutive threes to start the fourth to push the gap back out to 16. McVeigh and Magette also got in on the long-range act as the lead ballooned to 19.
That looked to have put paid to things before the late theatrics turned the contest into a thriller down the stretch - thouh the final margin ultimately flattered the Hawks.
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Mitch Jennings
Sports writer. Sport is my passion, rugby league my first love.
Sports writer. Sport is my passion, rugby league my first love.
