Cairns have maintained their unbeaten NBL record at home, overcoming a ragged first half to mow down Illawarra 81-71.
The seventh-placed Taipans were outplayed in the opening two quarters at the Cairns Convention Centre on Saturday before bossing the Hawks 48-33 after halftime to move to a 3-0 home record and 4-4 overall.
Team leaders Bul Kuol (19 points) and Tahjere McCall (16) were the architects of the second-half revival for the undermanned Snakes, who were without young Swedish sensation Bobi Klintmann (hip soreness) and import guard Pat Miller (back).
"It wasn't the prettiest game," Cairns coach Adam Forde said.
"I'm not going to sit here and pretend this improved our offensive rating - it did not.
"But the desire to win, that's the separator."
Gary Clark (19 points) and Sam Froling (18 points, 10 rebounds) led the way for Illawarra, who sprung a surprise when sharpshooting import Tyler Harvey, the last-second hero when these sides last met, was relegated to sixth man.
Harvey's influence off the bench was sporadic, finishing with 12 points at 29 per cent.
Both offences spluttered in a scrappy, forgettable opening term, which ended on Harvey's buzzer-beating floater to put the visitors up 18-14.
McCall's active hands on defence saw him rack up three first-half steals but the Hawks continued to keep the home side at arm's length.
Froling proved a tough cover in the paint before venturing outside and burying a triple right on halftime to stretch Illawarra's advantage to 38-33.
The Hawks' lead grew to seven points midway through the third period before Cairns, finally, took control through the frontcourt muscle of reserve AK Gak and two-way influence of Kuol.
Kuol's three-pointer in the dying stages of the third stanza gave the Snakes their first lead since the opening stages and the hosts continued to dictate in the fourth.
Kuol and McCall spearheaded separate 13-4 and 10-1 runs to keep Illawarra at bay and glued to the bottom of the ladder.
"Keeping a lead for so long then at the end letting it go with nowhere to go to get it back - that was it," Hawks coach Jacob Jackomas said.
"We tried a lot of things to get this thing right.
"We can't quit on this."
