The Wollongong Hawks received their own devine intervention to defeat the Adelaide 36ers 96-93 at the Sandpit.

Little used bench forward John Phillip, otherwise known as "pope" to his team-mates, played the perfect cameo to drag the Hawks out of an enormous second quarter hole.

Shooting an ugly 1-16 from the three point line, and staring at a 14 point deficit, Phillip provided the spark that finally ignited Wollongong's offence.

His first three pointer was the Hawk's first success in eight attempts in the second quarter, and infused some much needed hope after they had just scored seven points in nine minutes.

He delivered again on the next possession, nailing another three that had his bench on their feet.

Armed with the confidence shown by Phillip, Wollongong finished the half on a 12-2 run that saw them trail by just five.

The game started poorly for Wollongong, who were unable to score for three minutes.

With the early advantage, and 10 points from Brett Maher, the 36ers were never headed, and held a 26-24 lead at quarter time.

While Adelaide led 47-42 at half-time, it was Wollongong who came out firing after the break, scoring the first eight points to extend their run to 20-2, which gave them a three point lead.

The Hawks led by as much as eight in the quarter, but eight points from Oscar Foreman and seven from Jacob Holmes had the scores tied at 74-all at three quarter time, setting up a thrilling finish.

The final quarter lived up to every expectation of a clash between the third and fourth placed teams, with the outcome only decided when the final buzzer went.

With just three minutes to play, Willie Farley buried an incredible pressure three-pointer to put the 36ers up 93-90.

Wollongong's ever improving Adam Caporn displayed nervous steel with 90 seconds left to tie the game with a three of his own before Glen Saville made one of two free throws for a one point lead.

An Adam Ballinger basket gave Wollongong a three-point buffer, but there was plenty of action still to come.

With 30 seconds remaining both Maher and Farley had three-point attempts to force overtime, but both agonisingly missed.

Ballinger topped the scoring for Wollongong with 22 points, but Saville was the stand out, finishing with eight points, 17 rebounds and nine affix.

Maher caused the Hawks all sorts of problems, finishing with 25 points to lead all scorers.

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