The task of constantly chasing from behind took its toll on Sunbury in the last quarter of Saturday night's Big V men's game at Boardman Stadium, with the Jets losing 93-82 to then second-placed, now top team, Keilor.

But the Jets recovered on Sunday to upset previous ladder leader Hawthorn 101-96 on the road.

To split the round 7 weekend against the two top teams after round 6 must satisfy Jets coach Ken Epperson, who was clearly frustrated during the loss to Keilor.

But after some time for reflection, he was talking positive.

"We're going to get stronger and stronger," Epperson said.

"It (losing to Keilor) is a set-back now but in the big picture of things it's going to be a step forward for everybody."

The Jets took a giant step when they came from two points down at the last break against Hawthorn to win the round 7 clash by five points.

Forward Ryan Illingworth, who had copped several sprays from Epperson and two technical fouls against Keilor, redeemed himself with 22 points, while speedy guard Tristan Cousland had a game-high 25 points.

Centre Michael Thomas (17 and 10 rebounds) and guard Adam Chirico (13 points) also chipped in.

Against Keilor, Thomas was crucial at both ends against the imposing height of Tim Lang.

He finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds when he fouled out, although he did miss a few crucial free throws down the stretch.

The Jets clearly are just trying to fill the gap left by injured centre Adrian Mychal.

Epperson estimated Mychal, who averaged 16 points and 10 rebounds a game before his injury three weeks ago, would miss with a fractured thumb for another month.

Keilor had led by as many as 13 points before the Jets rallied to get within three points by half-time and then level the scores at 65 apiece at the last break.

Then all the things that Sunbury had been doing right to get themselves back in the contest began to go wrong again, with Keilor hitting the big shots when it counted and the Thunder had too many guns.

Sunbury was six points down with a minute left but finished 11 in arrears - their lack of experience in those situations telling, Epperson said.

"It's the one-percenters that let us down. Everything else was fine."

"We battled and fought extremely hard and I'm really happy with the guys, with that. We did a great job of getting back in the game but couldn't sustain it."

The Thunder scored five three-pointers in the last quarter, three of them from Brent Radoslovic (23 points) and then

Matthew Jukes polished the win with a three-point play plus one of two foul shots he got from Illingworth's second tech, plus another pair of free throws.

Keilor connected on 12 of its 37 three-point attempts while Sunbury put up just 10 from beyond the arc and hit one. Cousland had 19 points against his former team, while Tim Thornton added 13 points.

For Keilor, Lang had 15 and 12 boards, Peter Sheridan had three treys in his 14 points. Liam Wright also hit 14 and Michael Forbes bobbed up at key times for 11 points.

On Sunday, Matt Slaven led Hawthorn's scoring with 23 points, while Seb Belfrage had 19 and 15 boards and Jay Allen scored 16.

Sunbury hit nine of its 16 three-pointers and was more accurate from the field with a percentage of 48.6 compared with Hawthorn's 36.7 per cent.

Sunbury is on the road against Chelsea (which lost to Keilor 101-80 on Sunday) this Saturday night, before it has two consecutive home games over the next two Big V rounds.