Jack McVeigh's missed runner on fulltime has allowed the Brisbane Bullets to breathe a sigh of relief and escape with a 74-72 NBL win over the Tasmania JackJumpers in Hobart.
A third successive win looked assured when the Bullets led by 18 points late in the second half on Saturday, but their offence spluttered badly as the match wore on.
Aron Baynes (16 points, nine rebounds) put Brisbane ahead 73-67 with almost six minutes left, but it was the visitors' last field goal of the match as the Bullets becoming plagued by offensive fouls, shot-clock violations, travels and missed shots.
Rashard Kelly's two foul shots with 34 seconds remaining trimmed Brisbane's advantage to three points before fellow import Josh Magette conjured a quick steal and score four seconds later to make it a one-point margin.
At the other end, Baynes hit a free throw with 11 seconds to go, which ended a scoring drought of more than five minutes for the Bullets who were relieved when a trademark runner from Tasmania's top-scorer McVeigh (17 points) at the death was just short.
"Three (wins) in a row is a good thing but we started with a few losses in a row so we've still got to get back to square," Baynes said.
"It's not enough, that second half, so we've got a lot of improvement."
The Bullets were stagnant early but didn't take long to take control of the first half, centre Tyrrell Harrison's tip-jam off a missed shot from 350-gamer Jason Cadee on the quarter-time bell giving Brisbane a 19-14 lead.
Stymied by the Bullets' zone defence, the JackJumpers, uncharacteristically, missed their first 13 three-point attempts and were made to pay at the other end.
Baynes' four-point play, Nathan Sobey's banked triple and ex-NBA combo guard Tyler Johnson's powerful drive put Tasmania further on the back foot, the 17-2 run helping stretch Brisbane's buffer to 46-30 at halftime.
McVeigh and development guard Sean Macdonald caught fire in the third period to reduce the deficit to 11 points at three-quarter-time as the JackJumpers kickstarted their rearguard action.
