Facing elimination on their home floor, the Hawks dug deep to starve off a determined 36ers outfit in a thrilling 100-94 victory at WIN Entertainment Centre.

Kay finished with 12 points, five rebounds and five assists during 25 productive minutes in the second playoff contest.

The lead changed hands on several occasions in a tense fourth quarter, but Illawarra held their nerve to send the series to a deciding game in Adelaide on Thursday night. 

Hawks coach Rob Beveridge was rapt with his team’s ability to close the game out, but was adamant the Hawks would need to go up another gear in game three.

“We would of, could have, should have won games in the past and we simply didn’t get it done. Our resilience [in this game] was great,” he said.

“They are such competitors out there.

“They wanted to win on our court and rub it in our face, there is no question at all so they did everything they could have possibly done. 

“For us to able to handle that right now it was great. We know that we have to go to another level to handle the Adelaide crowd, to handle whatever is thrown in our face.

“We have to get even better than what we were [in this game].”

Bench weapon Tim Coenraad finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds in the win while Mitch Norton scored a season-high 17 points.

Rotnei Clarke (15) was another to impress.

Adelaide star Jerome Randle was booed every time he had possession, but had a game-high 20 points with five turnovers.

The Hawks burst out of the blocks, but had nothing to show for it when Adelaide went on a 9-0 run to level things at 11-all.

Kay got the hosts back on track with a pair of driving lays up as Illawarra went into the first change 28-22 up.

Tensions flared early in the second quarter when Randle and Hawks firebrand Kevin White went nose-to-nose after the latter scored on the newly-crowd NBL MVP in the low post. It gave Illawarra a double digit advantage.

Back-to-back threes from Anthony Drmic cut the margin to seven points midway through the quarter before a late flurry from Coenraad helped the Hawks to a 54-49 half time lead.

The Sixers stayed within touching distance before Clarke drained a three to ease the pressure.

It only momentarily stunted Adelaide's momentum as they wrestled back the lead for the first time since the first quarter on the back of a Randle pull-up jumper.

A late Clarke basket at the buzzer put Illawarra 79-78 in front and set up a thrilling finale. Both teams refused to give an inch as the lead continually changed hands in a nail-biting fourth quarter.

Two trips to the charity stripe for Norton allowed the Hawks to fight their way to a 99-93 advantage. 

It proved to be a winning buffer as Illawarra held on.