Tasmania the “teal” deal in beating Perth, finals beckon

Big performances from Will Magnay and Milton Doyle has helped the JackJumpers finish off the the regular season in strongly, defeating the Perth Wildcats 86-74 in front of a sell out crowd at MyState Bank Arena in Hobart.

With both sides final playoff positions already locked in prior to tipoff, the so called “dead rubber” game provided both sides an opportunity for a final hitout ahead with nothing to lose, ahead of the post season. However wearing their teal uniform to raise funds for local Gynaecological cancer charity Support Hope Educate, it was Tasmania staking its claim as a true championship contender as they swept aside the Wildcats.

Perth had made the call before tip off that Bryce Cotton would be a late scratching, opting not to risk the NBL’s leading scorer following a minor knee injury sustained in Thursday’s game against Illawarra. This provided coach John Rillie an opportunity to give more minutes to his extended squad, as they worked out ways to carry the scoring load of Cotton. But they recieved few answers across the 40 minutes of game time.

Perth held with the JackJumpers in the opening term, as Keanu Pinder did his best to shoulder the scoring load around the basket and the sides were tied at 22 all. But without Cotton in as the focal point of the offence, their points dried up as Tasmania’s Magnay, Marcus Lee and Jack McVeigh forced them into poor shots around the rim, but extra pressure from outside saw Perth unable to hit a three in the opening half and scoring just 10 points for the quarter. Meanwhile at the other end it was former wildcat Clint Steindl who showed them how it was done, coming off the bench to knock down a pair of threes to push Tasmania to a 47-32 halftime lead.

Perth’s struggles at the offensive end continued in the second half, as the lead stretched out to as many as 25 points. While for Tasmania Milton Doyle continued his strong scoring form in recent weeks with 24 points, whilst also feeding Magnay (13 points, 8 rebounds, 5 blocks) and McVeigh inside the paint.

Some late baskets by the Wildcats helped make the final result a little easier to digest, but it overall didn’t answer many questions at the offensive end. Alex Sarr (17 points) and Corey Webster (15 points) the only consistant theats as Perth shot just 38% from the field.

Building momentum

After struggling for conistancy mid way through the season and falling to 11-11, the JackJumpers have finished the season strong heading into the finals.

“I think we have done a good job, especially in this last fourth of the season,” Scott Roth said.

“To just really zone in and zero in on what we needed to get done defensively and offensively and couldn’t be more prouder than our guys again to win 5 of our last 6, 16 wins this year in a league thats been really really tough to deal with night in and night out with how good the teams are”.

Finals bound, but what next?

The win sees them finish their season with a record of 16-12 and finish in 3rd position. Meaning they will host a play-in game at home against the 4th placed team. Who that opponent is at this stage is still to be confirmed, with Illawarra (4th) and New Zealand (6th) both having opportunities to confirm 4th spot with thier final games of season on Sunday.

But regardless of who they play next, Tasmania will look to hold their own at “the nest” where they have won 4 of thier last 5 games.

“Keeping the momentmum going into the playoff series, us playing well everybody’s up and about, thats all you can ask for at this time of the year, “Milton Doyle said.