The Hawks jumped away to a great start through some great work near the basket by centre Cameron Tragarth, and some brilliant play by import American point guard Tywain McKee.

At one stage in the second quarter and again for periods of the third quarter the Hawks' lead was out to 21 points.

But the Adelaide 36ers fought back through some great shooting by Adam Ballinger and Cortez Groves, drawing level at 90 points each with two minutes left to play.

In the end the match came down to a three point attempt to tie the game at 96 each by Adelaide point guard John Gilchrist with two seconds on the clock.

Unfortunately the shot missed and the large crowd were robbed of the opportunity to see an extra five minutes.

The night was a huge night for Whyalla basketball, following on from the first ever NBL game in Whyalla last year.

Fans went away disappointed that the 36ers had lost, but excited by the spectacular action they had seen, and all the fun and atmosphere of the NBL experience.

Some were even lucky enough to walk away with some extra cash after hitting their shots in the half time "shoot for the loot" competition.

Organisers of the event said they felt the three days the 36ers were in town had been a huge success, with school visits on Thursday and a free coaching clinic on Saturday giving Whyalla children a rare opportunity to get up close with elite sports people.

The Sportsman's Night was equally an opportunity for the rest of the Whyalla community to meet with the members of the two teams in a social setting and was very well supported and the three point game was of course the highlight.

Organisers said they were a little disappointed that the crowd for the game was slightly down on last year's turn out, but said overall they believed it had been a fantastic event for Whyalla.

Both teams were extremely happy with the support shown to them by the Whyalla community and with the level of professionalism in the organisation of the total event and were keen to be involved again if possible in the future.

A spokesman for Wildcats Basketball Club said the club was extremely thankful to all of the sponsors and supporters of the Hood Sweeney Whyalla NBL Challenge for helping make this event possible and hoped fans of the game would remember to support those businesses that had been involved in any way.