The Tasmania JackJumpers have continued their midseason NBL revival, surviving a furious late rally to defeat the Adelaide 36ers 77-73.
The JackJumpers led by 13 points midway through the fourth quarter on Saturday night before holding on grimly for their third straight victory as the Sixers, willed on by a sellout crowd of 9428 at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, threatened a last-ditch miracle.
With Tasmania's lead whittled down to one point inside the last minute, the normally reliable Majok Deng missed two of three free throws, which gave the 36ers a sniff.
Dejan Vasiljevic missed an under-pressure 30-footer, before Sean Macdonald's floater with 10 seconds remaining sealed Adelaide's fate and snapped their 10-game home winning streak.
"That last five minutes was a little bit like high-school basketball for us, but our guys were resilient," JackJumpers Scott Roth said.
"Our defence was solid and we had enough guys chip in to get us across the line."
Will Magnay and Macdonald scored 15 points each for the JackJumpers, while Isaac Humphries (19 points, 11 rebounds) led the charge for the Sixers, who were without suspended stars Kendric Davis and Montrezl Harrell, the league's two leading scorers.
Tasmania, who were minus gun point guard Jordon Crawford (concussion), sped to a 12-4 lead before the Sixers emptied their bench and hit back through unsung reserves Keanu Rasmussen, Nick Marshall and Ben Griscti.
Former Sixer Anthony Drmic, playing his 250th game, gave control back to the JackJumpers, finishing the opening term with a dunk, a trey and a three-point play and giving the visitors a 29-23 quarter-time break.
Magnay and Macdonald were busy in the second term for the Jackies, but Adelaide otherwise did a better job defensively.
Humphries finished the quarter with a powerful dunk and buzzer-beating tip-in to win the stanza 19-14 and trim Tasmania's lead to one point.
The 36ers started the third term slowly before drawing level momentarily, but they couldn't muster their first lead of the evening, both teams having their struggles offensively.
Milton Doyle, unsighted in the first half, broke the deadlock with two triples and the reigning champions pulled ahead 60-53 with a quarter to play after outscoring Adelaide 18-11 in the third.
Magnay was dynamic at both ends in the fourth as the JackJumpers stormed ahead 72-59, before Humphries spearheaded a spirited 14-2 revival to get Adelaide within touching distance.
"I couldn't be more proud of a bunch of effort from a lot of guys," 36ers coach Mike Wells said.
"I thought our bench guys' minutes were extraordinary.
"(I'm just) really proud of the group."
