Brisbane Bullets 94 (Franks 23 points 11 rebounds, Patterson 14 points 10 assists)
defeated
Tasmania JackJumpers 86 (MacIntosh 21 points McVeigh 21 points )
Boxscore
Match Summary
There was no three point heroics by the Tasmania JackJumpers on the road this week, as their defense was tested against a taller Brisbane Bullets outfit, going down 94-86 in Brisbane.
With the JackJumpers still missing rim protector Will MAganay, the Bullets took advantage by working the ball inside to their interior big men Robert Franks, Deng Deng and Lamar Patterson. They were consistently able to find mismatches for easy baskets, or forcing fouls to get to the line.
The game started well for the Tasmania as they jumped out to a 14-6 lead on the back of three point baskets by Magette, Adams and McVeigh. It was quickly looking like a repeat of their impressive shooting display last week against Illawarra, but Brisbane managed to slow them down from outside.
Brisbane got back into the game through an unlikely source of Deng Deng, who came off the bench to score nine points in his four minutes on court, leading the Bullets to a 24-22 quarter time lead.
The second quarter saw both teams sticking to their game plans, Brisbane banging the ball inside while the JackJumpers were settling for three pointers when they were available, and knocking them down at 50%. But with three minutes remaining and scored tied at 40, Brisbane went on a 13-4 run, on the back of a strong defensive effort that forced JackJumpers turnovers and poor shot selections.
Brisbanes dominance inside the paint in the first half was highlighted with only 12 of their 53 points coming from three point shots.
The JackJumpers offence struggled to get going in the second half. The three point shots weren’t falling, and outside of McIntosh and McVeigh they had few options to go to inside the paint. Down 14 point midway through the third, they needed to get back into the game on the defensive end.
Which they did.
They finished the final six minutes of the quart holding Brisbane to a solitary 3 points, while scoring 9 points of their own to bring the deficit back to 7 points with a quarter to play.
Brisbane coach James Duncan got his team back to what was working and fed the bigs in the post, and was getting them to the line. When they did force missed shots, five offensive rebounds by the Bullets really hurt the JackJumpers momentum for a late comeback. Tasmania struggled make any inroads into the defiecit, with Brisbane able to get through Tasmania’s high risk defensive traps for easy baskets.
Following the loss Tasmania coach Scott Roth dsicssued the loss and what he was looking for on offence.
“We scored enough points to win the game, our problem was defense,” he said
“We never talk about shooting 3’s or analytics or how many 3’s we have to get up. If we’re open we shoot them, if we’re not we move the ball, try do something else with it.
“But we scored plenty enough points in my opinion to win, my goal is to drive teams in the 70’s somewhere along the way and hopefully we get to the 80’s and we just didn’t do it tonight.
Embed from Getty ImagesKey Takeaways from the game
Rebounding
Despite leading in the rebound count early, once the shots stopped dropping Brisbane took over on the glass 39-34. What was pleasing was the effort with the offensive boards, Tasmania winning that 15-10.
Getting to the line
As expected, Brisbane used their height advantage to push the ball inside all night. They also reaped the benefits from the foul line, shooting 24/29 compared to Tasmania’s 10/13.
Josh Adams
Tasmaia’s leading scorer for the season Josh Adams was under strong defensive pressure from Brisbane. He was unable to back up his 28 point performance against Illawarra, scoring 11 points on 4/12 shooting.
MiKyle McIntosh scoring
A shingling light out of the win was MiKyle MacIntosh’s offensive skills around the rim. He finished with a season high 21 points on 9/11 shooting.
An inside offensive presence is what the team has been lacking all season. McIntosh has had his own offensive struggles this season but hopefully the confidence he had inside tonight will translate to more games like this for the rest of the season.
Next up
Tasmania heads back home for a match against the Perth Wildcats on Monday 28 February.
