Financially battling first-season WNBL team SEQ Stars will play out the remainder of their campaign, but will do so without foundation head coach Shane Heal.
The southeast Queensland franchise was placed into liquidation on Wednesday, with five fixtures left on their schedule.
A day of discussions between Basketball Australia (BA) and other parties on Thursday secured a stay of execution for the Stars, who have suffered from a shortage of crowd and sponsor support.
The deal will ensure the Stars will not only fulfil their last five regular-season fixtures, but also any finals the fifth-placed club might play.
The Stars are running fifth with an 11-8 record, just one win behind fourth-placed Bendigo.
However, it later emerged that former Boomers star guard Heal wouldn't coach the fledgling franchise for the remainder of the season.
"I will not be coaching the team for the rest of the season. I'm advised that there is a sponsor contributing these needed funds, with one of the conditions being that I don't continue on as coach for the rest of this season.
"I'm just happy that the team will be able to finish off the season and, while I'm obviously disappointed, the game is bigger than one person."
BA CEO Anthony Moore wouldn't divulge exact details of the agreement, but stressed Heal's coaching tenure had effectively ended when the club went into liquidation.
"Shane's employment agreement, like all of the agreements relating to the Stars, was terminated upon liquidation," Moore told AAP.
"We've made a decision with our primary focus first and foremost being the athletes."
As of late Thursday evening, no replacement coach had been announced, although it was understood one of Heal's assistants, Megan Thompson, had been approached about filling the vacancy.
In a statement issued on Thursday, BA said as a result of a swift and intensive collaboration with Logan City Council on behalf of its local team, the SEQ Stars would play out the rest of the WNBL season.
"Through discussions with Logan City Council CEO Chris Rose, we have reached a position that will see the Stars play their last five games of the year and be eligible for finals should they qualify," Moore said.
He said there had been grave reservations until late Thursday afternoon about whether the Stars would be able to fulfil their remaining 2015-16 commitments.
The Stars were originally meant to travel to Adelaide on Thursday for a game on Friday, but would leave on Friday morning.
Following that, they will play away on Saturday to ladder leaders Perth.
They host bottom-of-the-table Canberra on Valentine's Day in their final scheduled home game before final-round away fixtures against Dandenong and Melbourne.
Moore was hoping the community support which earned the Stars at least a temporary reprieve would ultimately survive beyond this season.
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