The Illawarra Hawks have blown the NBL minor premiership race wide open after defeating Melbourne United 96-90 to move into second spot on the ladder.
The visitors came up big with a 14-2 run in the final five minutes of Saturday's clash at John Cain Arena to complete their fifth win in a row and beat the ladder leaders twice on their home floor in the space of a week.
Illawarra stood tall in a tense finish by producing an 8-0 run to hit the front in the closing minutes with Harry Froling pulling down a crucial offensive board and converting a three-point play with 26 seconds remaining to put the Hawks ahead for good.
Thanks to a sequence of 10 wins in their last twelve games, the Hawks (16-8) demote the Sydney Kings (14-7) to third place, with both teams challenging United (15-7) to finish with the best record in the regular season.
After missing last Sunday's win over United due to COVID protocols, coach Brian Goorjian enjoyed watching his side defeat a high-quality opponent but expects the race for semi-final positions will go down right to the wire.
"I'm watching the Jack Jumpers closely, I'm watching Phoenix closely - we're in a dogfight to get in the playoffs," Goorjian said about the playoff race.
"Going into (tonight) what we've done; beating Phoenix twice, beating Melbourne twice, beating Tasmania in Tasmania; when you look at that as a coach and you can't afford to lose any of those, It's like, man, this is just do the best you can every game."
Starting in place of injured star Tyler Harvey, Xavier Rathan-Mayes starred for the Hawks with 25 points, nine assists, six rebounds and four steals while Antonius Cleveland (22 points) and Duop Reath (18 points, nine rebounds) played crucial roles in the win.
The visitors made 10 of their first 12 shots to establish an early seven-point advantage but United nullified Illawarra's attack while making nine three-pointers to build a 50-47 lead at halftime
Illawarra quickly regained the lead in the third quarter, Cleveland showing off his elite athleticism as he piled on 10 points for the term, but it was the Hawks import's defensive prowess that impressed United coach Dean Vickerman.
"There's real disappointment in the last five minutes that we were unable to generate good enough looks down the stretch and part of that is them," Vickerman said after the loss.
"Cleveland is so elite at just blowing things up at different times that it's tough to run the stuff that you want to run."
Melbourne suffered another blow with Caleb Agada leaving the game after a hard fall in the third quarter, the Nigerian import in serious doubt to feature in United's important matchup against the Wildcats in Perth on Monday night.
