A barrage of three pointers by Jordon Crawford in the forth quarter has helped the Tasmania JackJumpers record a 105-95 win over the Sydney Kings at Qudos Bank Arena on Sunday.
With the JackJumpers holding onto a 7 point lead at the end of three quarters to a Sydney side who were building momentum, Crawford turned the game on its head in the opening minutes of the final quarter.
He silenced the 10,000 plus fans in the house as he knocked down four three pointers on a 14-2 run, pushing the lead out to 19 points, and effectively calling “game over” to any Kings comeback.
“I had a couple of opportunities where I’m open and I shot the ball,” Crawford said, scoring a game high 32 points.
“Marcus [Lee] and Majok [Deng] were setting great screens and in order for me to get those shots…..they did a hell of a job in doing that and it was a team effort,” he said.
The game had started at a frantic scoring pace for the JackJumpers, catching the Kings somewhat off-guard in the opening quarter to lead 36-25 at the first break. This included a pair of back-to-back three pints from Clint Steindl, who had 10 points for the term.
“I felt you know we just weren’t ourselves…..our guys early on were just stagnant, and just not playing ‘us’ ” Kings coach Mahmoud Abdelfattah said after the game.
The margin blew out to as many as 18 in the second quarter before some key baskets from Kings Jaylen Adams and Jordan Hunter reduced the lead to 12 at the main break.
Sydney’s momentum continued in the second half as they started off on a 13-4 run to cut the lead to just 3 points. But late threes by Majok Deng , Stiendl and Crawford stopped the Kings late run and the game was iced by Crawford in the opening minutes of the final quarter. Which they used to hold on to a ten point victory.
“It wasn’t beautiful by any means, we had moments. But I think it showed our grit really in the beginning third quarter when they threw a haymaker at us, which they were going to.” JackJumpers coach Scott Roth said.
“We were just able to you know ride the storm out and make a few more plays and got back to level and guys made the right decisions, we had a lot of guys contribute”.
“This is obviously not a finished product but one of the things that we really rely on is the ball moving and ….and when it does move for us we’re a little bit difficult to guard.”
With that win the JackJumpers move up to second on the NBL ladder (4-2) ahead of a top of the table clash with Melbourne United (6-1) on Friday in Hobart, then travel to Brisbane to take on the Bullets (2-4) on Sunday.
SYDNEY KINGS 95 (Adams 21, Hunter 16, Toohey 13)
Defeated by
TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 105 (Crawford 32, Deng 17, Doyle 17)
