The Tasmania JackJumpers have fallen short in their season opener, going down 101-95 to the Perth Wildcats at Perth Arena.
The JackJumpers trailed by as many as 16 in the final quarter, but a series of late baskets from Milton Doyle and Jack McVeigh brought them within one point with a minute remaining the game.
However the late charge was thwarted by emerging star Jordan Usher, who knocked down a late three to ice the game. That brought his scoring tally to 35, a record for a wildcat on debut.
Embed from Getty ImagesTasmania head coach Scott Roth took some positives out of the game, despite his defensive focussed team giving up 100 points.
“We just couldn’t get enough stops in a row and you know settle ourselves, and we had some really uncharacteristic turnovers,” Scott Roth said.
“But overall for our first game on the road in this environment you know im excited about our group and this is not a finished product by any means.”
Wildcats clawed back from poor start
It was a perfect start to Tasmania, who raced out to an early 12-0 start behind a pair of threes from Crawford and Doyle. The start left the Perth Arena crowd stunned and forced Wildcats coach John Rille into an early timeout. But his team turned around thier fortunes on the offesnive end, with Bryce Cotton and Usher both hitting key baskets to bring Perthback in the game, only trailing 25-26 at quarter time.
Perth didn’t slow down in the second quarter as they took their first lead of the game in the opening minutes, only to stretch the margin to nine points and Tasmania struggled to contain the Perth offence led bu Bryce Cotton, Jordan Usher and Keanu Pinder. But Tasmania closed the lead in the final minutes of the half with key baskets from Doyle and Crawford to trail 50-46 at the main break.
The Perth offensive machine pushed on in the second half. Tasmania had been managing to keep in touch with the Wildcats but a stretch of missed shots by the JackJumpers saw the lead balloon out to double figures. It soon was becoming a party atmosphere for the home team, as they looked to be strolling to a big win, however Jack McVeigh was having none of it. After a quiet scoring game, McVeigh exploded for 15 of his team high 22 points in the final quarter, carrying his team to most unlikely of victories. But late turnovers fizzled out the come back, but the JackJumpers never say die attitude is alive and well in season 24.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe JackJumpers new look squad looked solid at times, with key contributions coming from new recruits Majok Deng and Anthony Drmic. Jordan Crawford also looks right at home in the NBL, and provides an additional scoring option that the JackJumpers lacked at times last season. However, the defensive effort as a team will need to improvement.
“We did enough offensively to win, but defensively the other side of the ball, which is what we pride ourselves on we still got to fix some things and sort that out. But that’s just going to come with time working together.” JackJumpers forward Fabian Krslovic said post game.
Despite the loss, Scott Roth was upbeat with his team’s opening performance of the season.
“If you want to start the season anywhere on the road, this is the place to do it. I thought it was just a heck of a game to be playing in, very exciting, and I’m real proud of our guys. They fought all the way to the end.”
Tasmania next game is at home against reining champions the Sydney Kings on Friday 6 October.
