Breakers shoot down JackJumpers in Auckland

The JackJumpers put up a brave fightback late, but it wasn’t enough chase down a hot shooting Breakers team losing 94-88 in Auckland.

Having knocked off league leading Melbourne United in their previous game, there was some optimism that the JackJumpers had turned the corner and might find some late-season consistency heading into the playoffs.

That hope was dashed early on in Auckland, where the JackJumpers gave up 57 points in the first half and faced to an 18 point deficit at half-time against the New Zealand Breakers. Although defensively the JackJumpers looked solid, they just gave up too many shooting opportunities from the outside.

“I thought they just played much more aggressive than us in the first half for sure, I think they were 10/14 from the three ball and this put us in a big deficit,” JackJumpers coach Scott Roth said.

Parker Jackson-Cartwright had the hot hand in the first half, as he knocked down 5/5 from outside on his way to a game high 25 points. While fellow imports Zylan Cheatham (20 points) and Anthony Lamb (18 points) also found range from outside as the led the Breakers at the offensive end.

While at the other end Jack Mcveigh was an threat both inside and outside, as he had 14 points for the opening half, on his way to a team high 22 points.

The teams traded baskets in the second half and the Breakers held a comfortable 17 point lead with two minutes remaining in third quarter. But an 8-0 run to finish off the quarter by Tasmania brought the lead to single figures and brought the visitors back into the game in heading into the final quarter.

The Jackies flipped the script in the final quarter, as they looked to chase the game from the three point line, with Doyle and Macdonald combining for three triples and cut the lead to 4 points. But from that point the Breakers always had an answer, capitalising on the JackJumpers over-zealous double teams and close outs, allowing the extra pass finding the open player, pushing the lead back out to 14 with 4 minutes remaining.

But as the Jackies do, they kept coming until the final buzzer. They played the foul game in the closing minutes and regularly sent Cheatham to the line, who went 4-8 , while big threes from Doyle at the other end made it a 4 point game once again in the final minute. But an unsportsmanlike foul to Doyle and missed jump shots from McVeigh and Doyle allowed the home team to hang on 94-88.

Key stats

18 turnovers – the Jackjumpers have taken care of the ball in recent weeks,so this figure is one of their highest for the season, they average 12 per game in NBL24. The Breakers guards in particular put extra pressure on the JackJumpers ball handlers with Sean MacDonald and Jordoan Crawford accounting for 9 of the team turnovers.

14/26 free throws – the old coach killer, missed free throws. I had to do a double take when I saw we only shot 53% and essentially left 12 points at the line. For all the amazing things he does on court Will Magnay went 5/14 from the line, an area of his game he admitted post game needs improvement

“Its not like I don’t work on them, I make 50, I make 20 in a row after practice everyday, like I shoot lots of them and I think I just get in my head a little bit sometimes and overthink it,” Magnay said

“Its sort of the next progression of my game to build a bit more confidence in that area and you know it sucks and it hurts and I feel like a lot of that loss is my fault but you take that with the good and the bad and you know try and brush it off and move on to next week.”

The positives

You have to commend the fight by the JackJumpers to keep coming back in the match, there was a bit of a sense that this game could get out of hand for them but they stuck with it.

Jack McVeigh’s aggressiveness in the first half was a great sign for him,he seemed much more willing to attack the basket than pull up for a three.

Similar was Doyle’s aggressiveness in the final quarter, where he hit fours threes and led the fightback. However, he took more shots in the last quarter than he did in the opening three quarters. Its not surpsie they play better when they can find him shots.

Tasmania also got to the foul line 26 times, the last time these teams played they were on the end of a 34-9 lopsided foul count.

The negatives

Once again we see a loss after a big win, and their inability to string wins together. Which was discussed by Scott Roth past game.

“We’ve masted the art of being inconsistent and you know we just have a hard time trying to build momentum or trying to string things together and we have different opportunities during the course of the season that we weren’t quite able to do that,” Roth said.

“With four games left we have you know still a tough schedule and obviously tough games and I think there is a level of frustration with that. But our competitive edge seems to always be there for the most part which is a good sign and trying to string some momentum together is something we haven’t done very well all year.”

Up next

Just 4 games remain for the JackJumpers (12-12), and they remain on the road for their next game with a visit to the Cairns Taipans (11-14) on Thursday night. Ahead of hosting Adelaide 36ers (10-14) at MyState Bank Areana on Sunday afternoon.