Gators coach Darren Davey made no secret of his desire to stem the Magic's potent perimeter shooters.

He instructed his players to negate the influence of Magic star Luke Neilson, a guard averaging 19.3 points a game.

To Davey's joy, the defensive pressure got to Neilson and he had little influence on the offensive end.

"We kept him to four points," he said.

"We did the job on him.

"We were mindful of the fact they were a very good perimeter shooting team so we went out with a game plan to really put the heat on their shooters and make them work the ball inside."

A byproduct of the defence-oriented game was little separating the two sides from start to finish. The see-sawing nature of the contest set the scene for an edge-of-your-seat finish.

The nervous coaches prolonged the agonising wait to determine a winner by calling four time-outs in the last 15 seconds.

With the Gators up by one point and the game on the line, the Magic pounced on an Arnaud Lenferna turnover to gain possession with the seconds ticking down to the final buzzer.

"We managed to get a turnover and held on to the end," Davey said with delight in his voice.

The Gators clinched a low-scoring 51-50 win. The effects could be long-lasting on the finals-chasing club.

"It was one of those wins that builds team character," Davey said.

The key component to the Gators was James Guljas with a double-double.

The centre muscled up on defence when called upon and his creativity in the paint was the chief offensive weapon.

"He's the premier big man in division 1," Davey said.

"It's just his nous inside and teams find him too big to stop.

"He's very hard to stop.

"They normally have to get two on to him to deny him the ball and that's where we start getting points from the outside."

The more experienced guards Randy Shanklin and Adam Spence were vital links in the Gators' chain.

The Gators face bottom-of-the-ladder Keysborough away at the Springers Leisure Centre in Keysborough on Sunday.

They will not be taking it lightly. "There's no gimmes at all," Davey said.

"Keysborough has been close to a couple of the top teams this season."

■The Altona Lady Gators cruised to a 79-60 win over Hawthorn Magic in women's division 1 at home on Sunday.