Island defended as Tasmania levels up

JackJumpers fire back in second have to level up Championship Series.

The Tasmania JackJumpers were staring down the barrel of an almost unassailable deficit to start the second half, but fired back to beat Melbourne United 82-77 to level the NBL Championship Series.

Melbourne won the opening game of the best-of-five series by 23 points at home on Sunday, and with Chris Goulding (19 points) leading the charge, went on an 11-0 run to start the second half at a sold-out MyState Bank Arena in Hobart on Friday.

That had United leading by 15 points, and when Tasmania big man Will Magnay also picked up a fourth foul, it looked like it might have been a mountain too high for the JackJumpers.

Nobody told them that, though, with Jack McVeigh (16 points, eight rebounds, four assists) lifting them back into the contest to close the third quarter and cut the deficit to three.

Despite Tasmania going up by five with two and a half minutes to go, it still went down to the wire, but the JackJumpers did enough.

Getting Jo Lual-Acuil (nine points, 11 rebounds) and Shea Ili (20 points) out of the game with five fouls proved instrumental.

The series is tied at one win apiece, with the third game in Melbourne on Sunday. It is guaranteed to return to Hobart at least for game four next Thursday.

Tasmania's import point guard Jordon Crawford was the one to get going early, having come into the game scoring 12 points over his past three games on 5-of-28 shooting.

He had 13 points in six minutes of game two but wouldn't score again and took just two shots in the last three quarters.

The JackJumpers had plenty of others stepping up, with development player Sean Macdonald coming up huge with 13 points in 30 minutes.

Milton Doyle was hounded all evening by Ili's defence but had 13 points, 10 rebounds and three assists.

Marcus Lee added eight points, six boards and three blocks, and Magnay battled foul trouble again for seven points and five rebounds.

Melbourne managed just 22 points in the final 17 minutes of the game, going from leading by 15 to lose by five while shooting 38 per cent from the field.

HUNGRY JACKS NBL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES GAME 2

TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 82 (McVeigh 16, McDonald 13, Crawford 13)

MELBOURNE UNITED 77 (Ili 20, Goulding 19, Lual-Acuil Jr)