Illawarra tumbled from fourth on the ladder to seventh in the space of 17 seconds in Tasmania on Friday, only to remarkably claw their way back to a 108-107 double-overtime victory
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On a nail-biting night in Hobart, the Hawks led by 12 late in the fourth quarter only for a stunning late-game cameo from JackJumpers star Milton Doyle to force the game into overtime.
It gave the hosts all the momentum as they led by three with 1.6 seconds left on the clock only for Jordon Crawford to send Tyler Harvey to the line for three freebies.
The Hawks iceman drained all three sending the game into a second overtime period that saw the visitors sneak home with star JackJumpers trio Doyle, Will Magnay and Jack McVeigh all watching on after fouling out.
The visitors still made it hard for themselves down the stretch, with the usually razor-sharp Hyunjung Lee going 0-2 from the line with 10 seconds left and squandering the chance to go up three.
In the absence of their primary offensive weapons, Tassie couldn't find a go ahead bucket as the Hawks snuck home to move to 9-9 on the season and 7-2 under interim coach Justin Tatum.
It was a dramatic conclusion to a tumultuous game day for the Hawks, with the club confirming in a statement just hours before tip-off that star import Gary Clark was charged over a DUI offence five days earlier.
It appeared to have little effect on the 29-year-old who was best on court with a monster 25 points, 15 rebounds and two assists before fouling out just under 40 minutes.
It was pivotal performance in a game the visitors almost let slip after Doyle nailed trebles with 16 and three seconds remaining, the latter after Tyler Harvey looked to have iced the game from the foul-line with 15 seconds left.
The hosts were seven of 28 from deep through 39 minutes before Doyle's two long bombs, and one each from McVeigh and Crawford ripped the game from the Hawks grasp.
The Hawks ultimately steadied to continue a stunning resurgence under Tatum, an unthinkable scenario when he was first put at the helm of what appeared to be a sinking ship in November.
It also ended a shocking run of outs in Tassie, notching just their second win in the island state. While Clark was the star, he was ably supported by front-court foil Sam Froling, who had 23 points eight rebounds and two assists.
Foul-line wobbles aside, Justin Robinson was huge down the stretch, finishing with five assists and two key steals, while Lee was equally shaky from the line despite finishing with a 12-and-10 double-double.
Talisman Harvey finished with 19 points at 6-18 from the field but came up clutch from the line, with his 2-8 from long range coming in the extra time.
Having been on the other end of such nail-biters all too often over the past season-and-a-half, Harvey said the win was a massive step forward despite the finishing wobbles.
"That's a huge win. Tassie's unbelievable, they're never going to give you the game and that's what we need as well to get better," Harvey said.
"We've got to see where we're at and they're at the top of the league for a reason so it was an unbelievable win for us. We just want to keep this thing rolling.
"The growth of this group is huge and testament to JT. He's been doing unbelievable week in week out, getting us prepared for these type of games.
"This league is not easy. Every single game we're going into a battle and that's just the beauty of this league as well.
"No game is going to be given to you like you saw tonight. The game could have went 10 different ways in eight minutes. We just wanted to put together a good win and thankfully we got that."
Clark produced his best game of the season despite the news of his DUI charge breaking so close to tip-off, but Tatum said he's leaving the matter in the hands of the front office.
"Our management put a statement out about that earlier and that's all I'm going to talk about on that," Tatum said.
"GC was great tonight and we're glad that everybody put everything aside and just played basketball and got the win. We've been working, striving, so I'm really proud of guys to fight it out.
"That was a tough game. We knew that Tas was going to be really tough to beat at home and once they got on that run, Doyle hit those shots and we went to overtime, I just want to make sure my guys were not panicking and thinking about other things.
"We had to find a way to keep grinding and we stuck with it. Tas is a really tough team to beat at home and we were fortunate to get it done."
Mitch Jennings
Sports writer. Sport is my passion, rugby league my first love.
Sports writer. Sport is my passion, rugby league my first love.
