Illawarra were unable to send retiring great Tim Coenraad out a winner on Saturday, with the Hawks blown off the floor, 87-63, by finals-bound Tasmania.
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The Hawks looked stagnant from the opening quarter and were never in the game, trailing by as much as 22 points in the third term to finish their campaign with a franchise-low 3-25 ledger.
In a campaign not short on silver linings, it's clear that a Tyler Harvey buzzer-beater to defeat New Zealand a fortnight ago extracted the last drop of juice from the lemon before suffering heavy defeats in their final four games of the season.
While it was a meek end to a horror campaign, the bigger story was a nasty facial injury to Tasmania guard Josh Magette following a nasty collision at the rim with Hawks guard Will Hickey early in the third term.
It left the JackJumpers floor general nursing what looked to be a fractured cheekbone, putting his post-season campaign in jeopardy in what was also Tassie's final regular season game.
Milton Doyle fell just short of a triple-double with 20 points, eight rebounds and nine assists in a masterful showing.
Jack McVeigh had 13 points and Will Magnay added 12, with Fabijan Krslovic relishing some rare extended floor time with 12 points and nine boards.
Tyler Harvey finished with 13 points at a lowly 4-12 from the field, while Sam Froling had 12 points and seven boards, and Coenraad gave the home fans something to cheer about late with back-to-back threes as a parting gift.
That the bulk of the home crowd stuck around to deliver a post-game send-off spoke to esteem with which he's held in the eyes of the Hawks faithful, but it was as good as things got all night.
It concluded a campaign plagued by injuries to key imports, but there's no escaping a dreadful win-loss ledger that will leave rookie coach Jacob Jackomas and the organisation to do some soul-searching over the off-season.
The Hawks put heat on the rim early, Hickey opening their account with an and-one in a 7-4 start for the hosts.
Consecutive back-court turnovers opened the door for a 7-0 run for the visitors, punctuated by Magnay's slam over Deng that prompted Jackomas to burn an early timeout.
It did nothing to halt the run that extended to 14, with the Hawks 0-5 in response and unable to buy a bucket until Coenraad hit from mid-range; they're only basket in more than six minutes.
Sam Macdonald and Harvey traded threes late as the Tassie closed the term on a 21-6 run for a 25-15 lead at the first break.
The Hawks could not put a dent in the margin through the second, frustration boiling over in technicals for the home bench and Jackomas as the visitors lead ballooned to 15.
Doyle did most of the damage with five points and three assists for the term, though Froling had final say of the half, going coast to coast for a rim-rattling slam that brought the margin back to 11 on the buzzer.
The JackJumpers lost Magette after a nasty collision with Hickey that left him nursing what appeared to be a fractured cheekbone, putting his finals campaign in jeopardy.
Tensions continued to boil, with Deng copping the then Hawks' third technical. Playing angry didn't suit the hosts, who managed just four field goals through the 10 minutes and trailed by 21 at the final break.
It saw a fourth quarter played out as junk time, Coenraad's late shooting blitz drawing the biggest cheer of the night from the home crowd.
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