Bryce Cotton's sizzling coast-to-coast layup with 0.2 seconds left, after Kendric Davis missed a go-ahead drive, has delivered the Adelaide 36ers an epic 91-89 triumph over the Sydney Kings to level the NBL championship series at 1-1.
The Sixers fell behind by 14 points in the third term before rallying to win on the back of Cotton's brilliance in front of a record Adelaide Entertainment Centre crowd of 10,058 on Friday night.
After Davis missed a tough drive with five seconds remaining, Cotton collected the rebound and blew past every opposition player, finishing smartly with his left hand over Torrey Craig.
Cotton ran to the sideline and high-fived NBL legend Andrew Gaze in the commentary box, before Davis ran towards the 36ers star and yelled in his face.
It was the second time in the frenetic dying moments that the emotional Davis, the competition's MVP runner-up, needlessly made a beeline for Cotton, the NBL MVP.
Cotton, hounded by Matthew Dellavedova all night, scored 15 of his game-high 28 points in the fourth quarter.
"I didn't realise there was three seconds left on the clock, and I was trying to decide really quickly if I wanted to get a pullup three or take it to the basket," a stunned Cotton reflected.
"From there, instincts took over and I just ran as fast as I could."
Davis scored 20 but on an anaemic 6-of-25 clip.
Predictably, Sydney started with master tagger Dellavedova in Cotton's jocks and the six-time league MVP had three turnovers and two fouls in the opening term.
Craig and Xavier Cooks piloted a 9-0 run to push the Kings ahead 30-25 at quarter-time.
Unlike the opening rubber, this time Adelaide didn't lie down.
The 36ers employed a zone defence and went on a 15-2 tear to move ahead 44-37, but Sydney stayed in the hunt through the silky-smooth Craig.
His fifth three-pointer gave the Kings a one-point lead, before Dejan Vasiljevic replied with a long bomb of his own to give Adelaide a 53-52 halftime edge.
The Kings ramped it up at both ends in the third period, dominating the offensive glass and forcing the 36ers' ball handlers into continual cough-ups to streak clear 77-63.
John Jenkins and Isaac Humphries closed the gap to 77-68 at three-quarter-time before Cotton, for the first time in this series, got off the chain.
He started the fourth stanza with a pair of threes and continued to thrive, tying the scores on a Davis reach-in before finishing the evening in heroic style.
"We know if we get certain boxes covered, we're in good shape," Sydney coach Brian Goorjian said.
"Tonight (with) those boxes, they were better than us.
"That has a lot to say with the result."
Game 3 in the best-of-five series will be at Qudos Bank Arena on Sunday.
