A thirty point game from Jordon Crawford has propelled the Tasmania JackJumpers to a emphatic 97-80 win over the New Zealand Breakers at Vector Arena in Auckland.
Jack McVeigh once again put in a strong supporting performance with 20 points and 7 rebounds, while Will Magnay continued to impress coming back from his foot injury with 12 points and 12 rebounds off the bench.
Embed from Getty Images“We stayed pretty much on point with our game plan coming in and a lot of different guys chipped in which is real pleasing,” Scott Roth said.
Tasmania was playing without leading scorer Milton Doyle, who has returned to the United States after the passing of his father earlier last week
“Our thoughts and prayers are with him, the funerals tomorrow for his father. Im sure he’s excited about this outcome for us and you know these guys played very hard for him,” Scott Roth said.
“Really proud of our group obviously, it was just ‘next man up’ and just building on what we’ve been trying to do here and I thought they were relatively consistent across the board here”.
The win was set up in the first half on the defensive end, where the in the seond quarter the JackJumpers restricted the Breakers to 3 of 15 shooting from the field, and emphitically won the quarter 23 to 8 and hold a 17 point lead at half time.
The second half was more of an even battle, with Tasmania having all the answers for everything the Breakers threw at them.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe JackJumpers pursuit of getting on the glass also was causing the Breakers headaches throughout the game, as they grabbed 25 offensive rebounds and emphatically won the overall rebounding battle 60-35.
“We emphasise offensive rebounds heavily with our group and to see that kind of number is obviously a little out of the ordinary but great credit to them they were reletless on the galss and really proud of the group,” Scott Roth said.
New Zealand struggled to get any rhythm going thought the game but also struggled with the officiating throughout the game, seemingly to be on the receiving end of a number of soft foul calls, racking up 26 fouls to 19. It saw leading scorer Anthony Lampb foul out with 15 points, while Parker Jackson-Cartright (25 points) and Finn Delaney both played cautiously with 4 fouls for long stretches of the game.
Crawford aggressiveness encouraged by team
It wasn’t his most efficient night on the box score (9-28 from the field) but Crawford looked dangerous every time the ball was in his hands. He spoke of after the game about how he team mates encouraged him to keep going hard at the offensive end.
“Maybe a little more aggressive but I think it started with my teammates, they encouraged me and were telling me to be super aggressive and saying whatever happens we’re going to live with you being aggressive,” Crawford said.
“They were super confident in me and its amazing to have teammates like that who just buy in with you and have your back always, it was great.”
First win in NZ
This was the first time Tasmania had returned to Spark Arena since falling to the Breakers 2-1 in the Semi Finals last year. It also was their first ever win in New Zealand, having gone 0-4 at the same venue last season.
A win in New Zealand is yet another impressive road win for the JackJumpersin NBL24, follwing wins in Adelaide, Cairns, Melbourne and Sydney. That road record will be tested next week when they travel to Perth to take on the Wildcats on Friday night.
