Winners in Wollongong, Jackies down Hawks

A dominant first half defensive performance by the Tasmania JackJumpers has seen them pick an important away win, defeating the Illawarra Hawks 100-89 at the WIN Entertainment Centre in Wollongong.

“I told these guys I thought the first half they were outstanding across the board in what we were trying to accomplish,”JackJumpers coach Scott Roth said.

“I also told them at half time its really hard to play with a lead and its hard to maintain that kind of level and give them [Illawarra] credit they had a couple of swings at us and we just weathered the storm”.

It was a team effort at the offensive end for Tasmania, with six players scoring in double figures, led by Jordon Crawford’s 20 points.

There was a key contributions off the bench with Will Magnay again impressing with 13 points and 7 rebounds in just under 14 minutes of game time, and Clint Steindl dropped 5 of 7 from outside to finish with 15 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists.

Much had been made of the defensive improvements for Illawarra in recent weeks, that has seen their dramatic improvement in their overall gameplay under new coach Justin Tatum. However, it was Tasmania who put on a defensive performance in Wollongong.

The opening quarter had started evenly for both sides, as Illawarra took an early 8-6 lead midway through the quarter. But Tasmania clamped down the Illawarra offence, as they struggled to find the bottom of the net. While down at the other end Will Magnay was finding his touch around the rim with 6 quick points as Tasmania took away the lead, then it was extended with 3 pointers to Crawford, Steindl and Majok Deng. They rounded out the quarter on 17-2 run to take a commanding 23-10 lead at the first break.

Things didn’t improve for Illawarra for the remainder of the opening half as Tasmania pushed the lead out to as much as 25 before leading 51-30 at the break.

A refocused Illawarra came out in the second half, who were noticeably had more energy than the side in the opening half. With a switched on offence, they mounted a comeback led by Sam Froling (22 points, 11 rebounds) and Gary Clarke (18 points), With the home crowd behind them the Hawks reduced got the lead down to 13 points, as they chased remarkable comeback. But 13 was as close as they got as Jack McVeigh took the game back away as he scored 9 straight points for Tasmania in the closing minutes of the third quarter and pushed the lead back out to 17.

The Hawks remained competitive for the last quarter, but Tasmania managed to hold them out for an 11 point win 100-91.

Offensive rebounds

Tasmania’s effort on the glass has well documented, and once again they won the rebound count 46-33. Camptain Clint Steindl explained how controlling the boards helps them control the game.

“We’re always going to be relentless trying to create second chance points and getting another 18 o boards, it kind of plays into our favour and that’s the way we want to play to control the game that way,” CLint Steindl said

Bounce back win important after a tough weekend

After building momentum on both sides of the FIBA break in November and December, the JackJumpers were hit last weekend with a pair of losses, to Sydney and Perth. Clint Steindl explained how it hit the team hard, and the win against the Hawks was the result of hard work during the week.

“We had a tough weekend, and the only thing we could do was respond in the right way this weekend and so this was the first step after a tough week of practice and now we got to back up in two days time [against SE Melbourne] to I guess ‘cash in’ for this week,” Steindl said.

Up next

Tasmania head home for a Christmas Day clash against South East Melbourne Phoenix.