Tasmania stun the Wildcats in Perth

Tasmania JackJumpers 85 (Jack Mcveigh 17 points, Clint Steindl 15 points, Josh Adams 14)

defeated

Perth Wildcats 83 (Bryce Cotton 23 points, Todd Blanchfiled 19, Vic Law 16 points)
Boxscore

Match Summary

The Tasmania JackJumpers have pulled off one of their biggest wins in their short history, taking down the Perth Wildcats 85-83 on their home floor in Perth.

It was their first ever win over in the West, and ended the Wildcats six match winning streak.

“When you travel around the world and you get to play in other buildings, when you’re in the NBA you want to win in Los Angeles, you want to win in New York and when you’re in Australia, you want to win in Perth,” JackJumpers coach Scott Roth said.

“This is one of those places that have a great aura, a great culture and nothing but respect for them.”

Having being outmatched by Perth in their previous two matchups, Tasmania turned the tables to outhustle, outrebound and outplay their more fancied opponents.

Despite being outmatched by a much taller opponent, JackJumpers found early points inside through Fabian Krislovic. Starting in place of injured Will Magnay, he seized on a number of loose balls and offensive rebounds to score 8 of the teams first 10 points.

But a stray elbow to Jarrad Weeks left him on the floor with gash on his forehead. He was sent to the rooms for evaluation and left Roth to look deep into his bench. He ended up inserting development players Sean Macdonald and Jock Perry, who more than held their own on court. The unusual lineup worked, with Tasmania taking a 27-20 quarter time lead.

But the home team rallied in the second. Having been quiet in the first, the Wildcats started getting the ball through their stars Bryce Cotton and Vic Law. They stormed back to take a 48-46 lead at half time.

When it seemed like the Perth juggernaut was ready to overrun JackJumpers rallied. Both teams going back and forth throughout the second half with neither team able to pull away.

The teams were locked up at 80 entering the final minute of play. Josh Magette had not had a great shooting night so far, but showed his experience as he remained calm running the team. Getting their sets and not settling an iso play. After getting an offensive rebound off his own shot, Magette then found Adams who knocked down a clutch three to silence the Perth crowd.

Despite some late heroics from Cotton who answered with a three of his own, clutch fouls shooting and the “steal of the season” by Josh Magette saw the visitors prevail with a two point win.

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Key takeaways from the game

Rebounding

Despite having a much smaller lineup, the JackJumpers won the rebound count47-45. Including 18-8 on offensive rebounds.

In their last match Perth dominated on the JackJumpers 49-30 in rebounds.

Team scoring

Tasmania turned around their scoring spread from last weekends. Five JackJumpers scored in double figures, a huge improvement from the match against Illawarra with only Adams and Steindl getting to double figures.

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