Despite not beating any NBA teams this month the Tasmania JackJumpers played their best basketball of the season to take a commanding 97-72 road win over the Adelaide 36ers.
Having shown glimpses of great basketball throughout the opening four games, it was point guard Josh Magette who stood up at both ends of the floor to lead his team to an upset victory.
His 23 points, seven assists, four rebounds and four steals were impressive, but it was his pacing of the offense and relentless hounding on the defensive end that lifted his team.
For the 36ers, they had high hopes for thier opening game of the NBL23 following an extended preseason that saw play the NBA sides Phoenix and Oklahoma City in the USA. But they struggled getting out of first gear, looking tired and nowhere near the team that beat the Phoenix Suns.
First half
After a number of poor first quarters, Tasmania started the game red hot in Adelaide. Josh Magette opened the game with a three, then an assist to Milton Doyle for three, then knocked down another three to take a 9-0 run in the opening 90 seconds.
Tasmania continued their impressive shooting from outside, finishing the quarter up 32-10. A clearly shell shocked Adelaide side looked to change its gameplan after failing to keep up with Tasmania shooting, going 0/6 from outside to start the game. So they opted to better to utilise their size and attacked around the rim.
They started the 2nd quarter scoring 13 of the first 15 points, as Robert Franks, Craig Randell and Antonius Cleveland all found success around the rim for the 36ers. But Tasmania still found ways to answer, Jack McVeigh and Isaac White both scoring from inside and outside to maintain a double digit lead. Adelaide won the quarter 27 -19 and cut the lead at halftime to 14.
Embed from Getty ImagesSecond half
Adelaide continued to threaten throughout the second half, but were unable to get enough stops on the defensive end to ever really threaten. Their outside shooting game was nowhere near what it had been against NBA teams, and really held them back from making inroads into the huge lead. Late in the third they made consecutive baskets and threatened to get the lead to single figures but five late points from Rashard Kelly, including scoring off his own offensive rebound kept the lead at 13 going to the final quarter.
After the lead was pushed out to 17, six straight points from Adelaide home fans sensing a late fightback. Scott Roth called a timeout and which was instrumental in breaking the momentum of the home team. Tasmania scored the next nine points to once again establish a 20 point lead which the 36ers were unable to overcome.
Embed from Getty ImagesAfter the game JackJumpers coach Scott Roth praised his team’s great start to the game.
“Offensively our first quarters haven’t been ready great, I think this was our third game of opening up a building for opening night. So extremely proud of these guys to play for a third game on the road in an opening night like this.
“Great effort by our group, this league is obviously is extremely tough when you win on the road you thank your lucky starts and move on to the next one.”.
He also praised the play the fight of Josh Magette and Milton Doyle.
“Jet’s [Magette] been struggling a little bit with his shot and Milt [Doyle} has been prior to that, now they’ve both seen the ball go through so its been obviously I know a relief to him to see the ball go through. But in general the quality of the shots were there, the ball movement was there and defense remained pretty steady.
ADELAIDE 36ERS 72 (Randall 18, Franks 14, Cleveland 10)
TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 97 (Magette 23, Kelly 19, Doyle 16)
Up Next
Tasmania (2-3) head to Melbourne for matchup with Melbourne United (1-1) at 2PM AEST Sunday afternoon.
