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Illawarra coach Justin Tatum has hit out at the NBL referees after his side's three-point loss to Adelaide.

Illawarra Hawks coach Justin Tatum has taken a shot at the referees for a crucial no-call in the dying seconds of his side's narrow 91-88 NBL loss to the Adelaide 36ers.

After trailing by 25 points late in the second quarter on Monday night, the Hawks closed the gap to three points and had the last possession when Sixers import Montrezl Harrell fumbled with eight seconds remaining.

Tyler Harvey missed a three-pointer on the fulltime buzzer to tie the scores, but Tatum was left fuming after the Hawks import appeared to be grabbed by 36ers guard Kendric Davis moments before the shot.

"It's definitely hard to take, watching an intentional foul with 2-3 seconds, blatantly," Tatum said.

"It should have been an unsportsmanlike (foul) - (we would) shoot two free throws and get the ball back.

"It was an unfortunate miss."

Illawarra centre Sam Froling spearheaded his side's valiant fightback, racking up a career-high 35 points and 13 rebounds.But his overarching post-match feeling was frustration.

"It's hard," Froling said.

"If Tyler gets fouled at the end, he probably should be shooting two free throws, giving us a chance to foul them and play that game.

"There was a no-call, and it's hard."

The Harvey decision wasn't the only one that irked Tatum.

Froling was a focal point under the basket all evening, but the Hawks felt they weren't compensated appropriately with foul calls.

"We scored 50 points in the paint (to Adelaide's 40) and only shot 10 free throws (to the Sixers' 20)," Tatum said.

"At the end of the day I guess we need to start shooting more jumpers, because you don't get rewarded for attacking the paint.

"We're the number one team in the league for paint scoring, but we always shoot the least free throws."

Tatum said he won't air his grievance with the league, opting instead to ignore the referees.

"I'm definitely not going to give any attention to those three people out there who have the calls on those things," he said.

"We're focusing on where we're trying to be at and what we need to do.

"(We) don't (want to) give anybody like that (referees) attention, because that's what they want."