Jack McVeigh has been telling himself “I make big shots” in the mirror every morning, and that self belief came to the forefront on Saturday night as he hit the game winner in overtime, giving the Tasmania JackJumpers a 90-87 road win over the Cairns Taipans.
“It was good fun, Magnay passed me the ball from the inbounder and I was like ‘ýes I get to shoot this’ then he passed it back and then I just let it fly and then I can’t really remember what happened for the 30 seconds after that, “McVeigh said post game.
“They’re the moments I work for and live for, so yeah definitely no pressure”.
McVeigh led Tasmania with 24 points and 5 rebounds, Crawford had 20 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists, while Scott Macdonald had 10 points and 5 rebounds off the bench. But with key player Milton Doyle fouling out in the final quarter, Scott Roth praised the effort of his entire squad post game.
“The effort of the team was great, you know Milt obviously had his struggles, we had to overcome some foul issues but our guys continue to find ways to tick over the scoreboard, get stops, and the basketball gods were in our favour tonight.” he said.
After Tasmania built an early 7 point lead the first quarter, the Cairns Taipans slowly wore them down through Patrick Miller (26 points) and Tahjere MccCall (21 points) to take a 46-44 lead at half time.
The Taipans built on thier lead in the second half, and pushed it out as far as 8 points at the start of the final quarter. Milton Doyle responded with a pair of quick baskets before he was called for an offensive foul, his fifth for the game and an early exit grom the game. Leaving Tasmania to navigate the rest of the game without their most potent forth-quarter offensive weapon.
As Tasmania chipped away at the lead, the JackJumpers turned their efforts on the defensive end, as they suffocated the Cairns offense, holding them to just 10 point in the final quarter. Will Magnay in particular was a force under the basket, forcing the Taipans into tough shots, swatting balls away and grabbing big defensive rebounds. At the other end Jordon Crawford stepped up in Doyles absence, çonsistentlyweaving his his way through the Cairns defence to the rack and wearing down the Taipans lead .
Embed from Getty ImagesCrawford’s three point basket with 1.25 remaining gave the visitors back the lead, before further basket by Miller tied the game at 77 with 30 seconds remaining. A running jumper by Crawford was unable to fall in the final seconds, sending the game to overtime.
The teams continued to trade baskets in the overtime period, dwon by two poins in the final possession, McCall drove in for the game tieing basket with 6 secounds to go. With one last chance to win the game, Will Magnay found McVeigh on the logo for one final shot, which won the game.
“He’s got as good a shot as anyone ive seen so when the ball releases from his hand, he’s one of the few guys that I always think its going to go in,”Roth said post game.
“Clutch moment for him and a great experience for him a big moment that he can build off of but again i’m relly proud of our group
“Its one of those games that unfortunately there got to be someone that loses that game and kudos to those guys [Cairns} that played extremely hard and physical and tough and it was a grinder and you walk away with that one and I told these guys if we hadn’t lost that game I’d have been just as proud of them the way they competed and played.
The JackJumpers now take a well earned brake thanks to the FIBA window, their next game is at home against the Adelaide 36ers on 2 December.
