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Gold Coast are still in contention in the NBL after a two-point win over Perth in their semi-final.
The Blaze's NBL championship hopes remain alive after surviving a Perth Wildcats onslaught in their semi-final to claim a nail-biting 72-70 win on the Gold Coast on Wednesday night.
The Queensland club surrendered a 20-5 first quarter lead and then several seven-point advantages as the six-time champions came at them again and again.
Controversially, Shawn Redhage was called for an offensive foul and his basket waived away with less than 30 seconds left, before Adam Gibson and Jason Cadee both made 1-of-2 from the charity stripe.
"If the ball is released and it's in the air it should count," disappointed Perth coach Rob Beveridge said.
The game still hung in the balance until the final buzzer when a desperate Damian Martin heave went wide to hand the Blaze victory.
"We couldn't get that play done and that's life. That's the way it goes," Beveridge said.
Adris Deleon slotted 15 points for the Blaze, while the frontline of Mark Worthington (11 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists), Anthony Petrie (12 points, 5 rebounds) and Will Hudson (11 points, 6 rebounds) all stood tall.
Martin and Matt Knight both scored 14 for the Wildcats while MVP Kevin Lisch had 10 points and eight assists.
There was relief for Gold Coast coach Joey Wright who said the Perth fightback from 20-5 down showed you can never give them an inch.
"I thought mentally we dropped the ball there," he said.
"That blood rush the lead gave us made us shoot some bad shots and we picked up some fouls that we shouldn't have."
He praised his side's tenacity for holding off the Wildcats and never letting them take the lead.
"Every time they got close, we made a play," he said.
"That's what it's going to take to win a championship."
Wright is also hopeful star guard Adam Gibson can play more of a role in the deciding game after again playing limited minutes with a calf injury.
Hudson showed he had come to play with a monster dunk to open proceedings, while Mark Worthington stroked home an open three-pointer as Gold Coast set up their 15-point advantage.
That lead was slashed back to just three points at quarter-time as Perth capitalised on a spate of turnovers and fouls from the Blaze - including an unsportsmanlike one from Stephen Hoare and a technical foul called on Worthington.
Gold Coast streaked ahead again before Perth cut the margin to just one with little more than two minutes remaining in the second term.
The Wildcats closed within one point in the third quarter through Knight's hustle, but the desperate Blaze still held a 60-57 lead heading into the final quarter.
The Wildcats had two chances to take the lead with just over three minutes left in the game, but Luke Nevill travelled on his way to the basket and then put a foot on the line with the ball in hand.
The Gold Coast's crowd had their hearts in their mouths in the dying seconds, but Martin missed and the Blaze now face a deciding semi-final in Perth on Saturday night.
