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JACK McVeigh hit the first NBL match-winning basket of his career as Tasmania escaped Cairns in an overtime thriller before Brisbane squandered yet another victory by stumbling at the final hurdle, allowing Perth to skip to its fifth straight win.

The Taipans-JackJumpers was a cut-throat match allowed to get completely out of hand by the officials. News spread quickly they were instructed to call less of the incidental contact which marred recent rounds with crazy foul counts and free throw numbers.

But this one was out of control, wrestling, holding, grabbing, hugging the order of the day, the Taipans the main culprits while Tassie not only had to deal with Milton Doyle fouling out but the fact three of his five bordered on ludicrous.

Patrick Miller stepped up for Cairns with a season-best 26 points as the JackJumpers also lost Will Magnay for a substantial portion of the game after what appeared an accidental eye poke.

Sean MacDonald picked up the slack, his 10 points on 4-of-4 shooting but when Bul Kuol scored with just over a minute left in regulation, Cairns was up 75-74 and was being exhorted to victory by its large, supportive home crowd.

Anthony Drmic then splashed a 3-pointer and Tassie was out again 77-75, Miller's jumper tying it at 77-apiece and Jordon Crawford unable to break the deadlock that sent this into overtime.

Cairns took the lead immediately in the extension behind Tahjere McCall, a revved up Crawford erasing it before Miller stuck a triple. Crawford again took it upon himself to bring the JJs to 81-82, then hit another shot for their 83-82 lead.

A man possessed, his layup put the Ants out 85-82, Kuol tying it up again with a 3-point swish.

Crawford free throws - so far he had all 10 of Tasmania's points in O/T - made it 87-85 but McCall tied it again with heartbeats left.

Those beat most strongly in Magnay and McVeigh's chests, the pass from the big man finding the cracker-Jack open but still a long way from home.

McVeigh turned and let it fly perfectly off the hand, the ball swishing as the siren sounded on another of the great wins of this season.  

TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 90 (McVeigh 24, Crawford 20, MacDonald 10; Drmic 9 rebs; Doyle 6 assts) d CAIRNS TAIPANS 87 (Miller 26, McCall 21, Kuol 17; Armstrong 7 rebs; Armstrong, McCall, Miller 4 assts) in overtime {77-77} at Cairns Convention Centre. Crowd: 4,194 

BRISBANE remains an enigmatic quantity after squandering yet another potential win it had halfway down the bag before Bryce Cotton and Kristian Doolittle pulled the Wildcats back out of it.

This is Perth's first win in its mini-streak that resonated as an indicator the Wildcats may be post-season contenders, but still largely because so few teams know how to put an opponent away.

Cairns in Perth, Tasmania at home, South East Melbourne in Adelaide all blew what should have been wins this round due to their inability to execute in the end-game and Brisbane is very much part of that same crew.

Chris Smith off the Bullets bench had been unstoppable with a 13-point second quarter and his triple inside the game's final five minutes put the Bullets nine up at 68-59.

Incredibly, it still was not enough, Hyrum Harris, Keanu Pinder joining Doolittle and Cotton in racing to the rescue.

At 3:01, Brisbane still led 70-64 but consecutive threes from Doolittle (21 points at 67 per cent, 9 rebounds, 3 assists) and Cotton tied it away.

Josh Bannan and Smith twice gave the Bullets the lead, their baskets erased by Doolittle and Harris for 74-74. Inside the last 30 seconds, Pinder nailed two free throws before Cotton from the stripe bumped the lead to 79-74 and this was over.

Nathan Sobey's decision-making in crunch-time (13 points on 5-of-17 and several "Heys!" as he hit the floor playing for a foul - was expensive, Perth's wiser heads prevailing. 

PERTH WILDCATS 79 (Cotton 25, Doolittle 21, H.Harris 14; Pinder 10 rebs; Pinder, Doolittle, Cotton 3 assts) d BRISBANE BULLETS 76 (Smith 23, Bannan 17, Sobey 13; White, Bannan 6 rebs; Norton 4 assts) at Nissan Arena. Crowd: 4,869