Phoenix rise late to defeat Tasmania

A 27 point effort by Jordon Crawford wasn’t enough for the JackJumpers, who went down agonisingly close 86-85 to the South East Melbourne Phoenix at John Cain Arena on Saturday night.

Majok Deng had two foul shots for Tasmania with 3.4 seconds remaining to tie up the game. But after calmly sinking the first, his second attempt rimmed out.

Deng was put on the foul line after having his legs taken out from him whole scrambling for the loose ball, after a missed jumper by Phoenix guard Gary Browne (20 points) to seal the game.

“I wouldn’t want anyone else on the foul line other than him,” JackJumpers coach Scott Roth said.

“This is basketball, this is not life or death. There’s bigger things than missing that foul shot that I worry about. We just move on and flip the page,” he said.

Tasmania did a lot right in the game, shooting at 55% from the field and 48% from three. However it was the 13 turnovers that ultimately cost them the game, with the Phoenix taking advantage scoring 22 points from those turnovers. South East Melbourne were much more disciplined, giving up a season low 5 turnovers costing them just the 3 points.

Crawford complimented the Phoenix post-game but admitted that the the JackJumpers needed to be better.

“You know give credit to them they played hard and was getting after it and we did a great job as well, so we take the good, fix some things that we need to fix and then we need to continue to go,” Crawford said.

Tasmania were looking to make it three wins in a row, following an emphatic win over the Hawks on Thursday night. They also were returning to John Cain Arena for the second time in a week, after upsetting United last Sunday afternoon.

The Phoenix were looking to rebound off a loss to Illawarra last week, and needing thier team to step up as key big man Tyler Cook was ruled out with an eye injury.

The JackJumpers started strong in the first quarter, with Milton Doyle scoring the first 5 points and the signs were looking ominous for the home side. Back-to-back threes from Clint Steindl saw them stretch to lead out to 8 points before finishing the quarter up 24-19.

The Phoenix upped their defensive intensity in the second quarter, forced multiple turnovers and stalled the JackJumpers offence. At the other end Phoenix were looking at attacking the basket and looking to feed Mitch Creek (16 points) the ball down low. They took the lead mid way through the quarter before the teams were level at half time 43-all. With Doyle being locked down by the defence, Crawford was playing a lone hand on offence with 17 first half points.

The Phoenix offence kept pushing in the second half through Browne who had 10 points for the quarter and gave the home side a 4 point lead heading into the final term. The lead changed hands three times in the final quarter as points became hard to come for both sides. Tasmania was staying in touch with threes from Crawford, Doyle (14 points) and McVeigh (15 points), however the Phoenix kept finding ways to score around the rim and from the foul line.

Crawford tied the game with three pointer with a minute remaining as the game headed for a big ending. A cool Browne hit a clutch three pointer for Phoenix to re-gain the lead, and they looked ho have the game won after Doyle missed down the other end. The JackJumpers decided not to foul on the final play and were rewarded after Deng pounced on a loose ball after Browne’s missed jump shot, and was fouled by Creek .

But Deng made just one out of two from the charity stripe, and Creek secured the rebound to grab the win for the home side.

“We had really good looks in the last two or three minutes there when we got the lead and you know we had a couple of open threes and balls rattled in and out,” Scott Roth said.

“Ultimately we didn’t sit an guard through most of the game and we had some poor guarding phases.

“But in general yeah im’ happy with the group it was a heck of a game, I wish I was playing, I wish I was 40 years younger,” he said.

Tasmania’s next game is on Sunday 22 October against the Kings in Sydney.