A late fightback by the Tasmania JackJumpers has seen them almost steal the most unlikely of victories, but after all the hard work they instead saw a yet another win slip through their grasp, going down 108-107 to the Illawarra Hawks at MyState Bank Arena in Hobart.
The loss follow a similar heartbreaking loss in Brisbane on Wednesday night, losing 93-90 to the bullets thanks for a Chris Smith three pointer on the buzzer.
After an underwhelming 37 minutes of JackJumper basketball, the visiting Hawks appeared to be cruising as they held a 12 point lead and were looking to start running the clock out.
But Tasmania were keen to stick around a bit longer, as Jordon Crawford (24 points) and Jack McVeigh (17 points) knocked down threes to give the JackJumpers in the hunt. Then Milton Doyle stepped up, who to that point had not troubled the scores too much thanks to some tight Hawks defence. With the game on the line Doyle hit two three pointers in the final 20 seconds of play to tie the game up at 86-86 and send it to overtime.
Doyle hot form continued into the first overtime, where he drained a further two baskets from outside, as Tasmania were poised to complete the comeback win ahead 96-92 with 45 seconds remaining. But back-to back fouls on Hyunjung Lee and Tyler Harvey (19 points) by Doyle saw him forced to watch the remainder of the game on the sidelines with 5 fouls. The teams traded foul shots until Tyler Harvey’s was fouled just over the halfway line attempting a hail-mary heave to tie the game. Under pressure he hit all three foul shots to square the score at 99-99 and the game went a second overtime period.
Already without Doyle and McVeigh from Fouling out, Will Magnay (13 points, 7 rebounds, 3 blocks) soon joined them on the bench as his battle with Sam Froling under the basket came to and end with his 5th foul.
Down three of their top offensive weapon, Crawford shouldered the offensive load in the second overtime, but was heavily up against a Hawks side that put on plenty of defensive pressure. A three from Harvey with 30 seconds remaining gave the visitors a one point lead, with Crawford and Anthony Drmic (9 points, seven rebounds) missing three point attempts in the closing seconds, seeing them fall short 108-107.
All of the Hawks starters had double figures in the match, with Gary Clarke leading the team with 25 points and 15 rebounds. Clarke along with Froling (23 points 8 rebounds) were an ongoing problem inside for the JackJumpers, who outscored them 60-32 inside the paint.
Tasmania late game discipline costly
Despite being encouraged by his team’s fightback, JackJumpers coach Scott Roth was still frustrated by their discipline in close games.
“The fight was great to get back into the game and push it to overtime, but then our lack of discipline, shot selection, turnovers and what we’re doing haunted us, and will probably continue to haunt us, he said.
“It’s probably something that we’re going to learn a very valuable or tough lesson from this season.”
The loss leaves the JackJumpers NBL24 campaign in trouble, as they fall to 11-11 on the season. The concern is they have now lost 6 of their last 8 games and are struggling to find tine formula to win tight games.
“I don’t know what these last six games hold, we might not win another game for all I know or we might be able to win six in-a-row. If we’re lucky enough to get into these playoffs, someone’s going to be probably quite scared to play us if we ever get our act together.”
Next up
The JackJumpers holiday home stand comes to an end next week when they host ladder leaders Melbourne United on Friday night at MyState Bank Arena.