Game Preview South East Melbourne Phoenix v Tasmania JackJumpers

Round 19 – South East Melbourne Phoenix v Tasmania JackJumpers

Saturday 10 February, 5.30pm tip-off AEDT

John Cain Arena

Watch LIVE on ESPN via Kayo and Foxtel

State of Play

A spot in finals, and highly likely a top 4 place, is up for grabs for the JackJumpers this Saturday as they face South East Melbourne Pheonix in the last away game of the regular season. While South East Melbourne are languishing at the bottom of the standings, they have been one team which has proved a bogey side for the 3^rd place JackJumpers with Pheonix taking home the W in both of their match ups so far this season – a heartbreaking 1 point loss in Round 3 and then SEM being the grinch to spoil the Jackies’ Christmas Day home game extravaganza.

Phoenix will have several key bodies back in Round 19 with Matt Kenyon, Mitch Creek and Gary Browne likely to return from respective injuries and they’ll be eager to finish off NBL24 with a bang.

Fun facts

Jack McVeigh leads the league in ‘Plus Minus’ (+195) and Impact (+130.6), while Clint Steindl is ranked 1st in the Legaue for 3-point percentage (53%). 

Last time they met  

HUNGRY JACKS NBL ROUND 12

TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 77 (McVeigh 20, Doyle 18, Crawford 12)
SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE 85 (Browne 20, Nader 20, Kenyon 12)

Christmas Day basketball in the NBL inspired the South East Melbourne Phoenix to a morale boosting performance full of heart to upset the Tasmania JackJumpers 85-77 in Hobart.

The NBL double-header for Christmas Day was greeted by a sold out crowd at MyState Bank Arena and the odds were stacked against the Phoenix. To top that off they were still missing captain Mitch Creek along with Craig Moller and Gorjok Gak.

Star centre Alan Williams also collected a fourth foul early in the second quarter and 320-game veteran Reuben Te Rangi went down with a lower leg injury.

If that wasn’t enough, they were up against the second placed JackJumpers who were on their home floor in special Christmas uniforms with a raucous crowd behind them, but South East Melbourne just wouldn’t be denied.

Browne finished with 20 points, 11 rebounds and six assists with new signing Abdel Nader adding 20 points and seven boards on 11-of-12 field goal shooting despite 4-of-15 from the field.

SRT Logistics Coaches’ take

Assistant Coach Jarrad Weeks said “they’ve got nothing to lose and we know they like to spoil the party for other teams as they head into finals, as we’ve been on the receiving end of before, in a good way. They also have key personnel coming back in and on their home floor, they’ll be hungry. SEM like to play with pace, so we’ll need to keep it on our own terms. We’ve been playing a good style of basketball over the past couple of weeks so we need to continue that in these next couple of games.

Ins & outs 

Tasmania JackJumpers: Majok Deng remains sidelined with an ankle injury.

South East Melbourne Phoenix: Matt Kenyon and Austin Rapp will return to the line up. Mitch Creek and Gary Browne will miss the game through injury.