A Derrick Washington pre-game message has lifted Launceston Tornadoes from a near season-ending threat to their NBL1 finals aspirations to a 100-95 overtime win on Friday night against the Lauren Jackson-coached Albury-Wodonga Bandits.
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Australia's greatest female basketballer with two-year-old son Harry sitting in tow on the bench at Elphin Sports Centre called the shots and was in control for nearly the entirety of the contest.
But a 13-2 Tornadoes' run in the final five minutes of regular time quickly brought Jackson's plans undone.
The visitors led at every change and stretched the margin out to a game-high 12 points during the last term.
But Washington revealed after pinching the game the inspiration for his players from poignant words of his Friday social media post.
"What I told our ladies tonight specifically was that 'teamwork is the beauty of basketball, where you have five individuals playing as one'," he said on Friday night.
"That was the thing going into tonight's game.
"I told when we had 43 points at half-time, we can put up another 57 - and we held them, we stopped them.
"I said we have to come out and play defence together."
The home side stunned the Bandits to run away to a 14-9 finish in overtime.
It never looked in doubt when the lead pulled out to seven points three times and the Bandits trailed for all of those five minutes.
"I was definitely confident - we had the momentum going into it," Washington said.
"We could have ended it, but I told them to stay calm. Just keep doing what we're doing because they didn't know how to stop us."
That wasn't the case earlier.
The fightback started late in the third quarter when the Tornadoes got on level terms just two minutes from the break following a clutch three-pointer of Stella Beck's.
Washington's determined charges had not got that close since the opening four minutes of the night after first giving up the lead.
That just further angered the Bandits to go on a seven-point stretch and then 19-7 run well into the final quarter to repel the Torns.
But Launceston chipped away until scores were levelled again with 1:27 left on the clock after jump shots from Sarah O'Neil for three, and Steph Gardner and Brittany Hodges for two each.
Albury had their chances to seal it, but panicked.
Star Emilee Harmon first fumbled a lay-up that would have extended the Torns' deficit to four in the final two minutes.
Cherise Daniel, who went on to score a game-high 24 points, could have added a vital two when it mattered.
The American point guard got called for a charge on Bec Abel heading for a certain basket with 25 seconds left and victory in sight.
Daniel wanted to challenge it and Jackson initially showed contempt, but the 37-year-old coach instead focused on calming her side down.
Washington kept a cool, but excitable head in a battle the two-time WNBA assistant thoroughly enjoyed.
"It is always a thing of beauty to go against a WNBA hall-of-famer," he said.
"Hats off to her - she had these girls coming hard."
The Torns have moved up to twelth with a 3-6 record.