JackJumpers go down to Phoenix in Launceston

The Tasmania JackJumpers struggles in Launceston continued on Wednesday night with the South East Melbourne Phoenix snapping their five-game losing run at The Silverdome with the 86-75 victory.

The JackJumpers came into the contest in fourth position having won the last two matches while the Phoenix had lost five in-a-row to slip outside the top six including a loss to the Brisbane Bullets at home on Monday night.

They played with the desperation of a team determined to bounce back too. By the time the Phoenix opened up a double-digit lead early in the contest, they maintained that most of the way.

South East Melbourne's lead was 14 by half-time and even after an 11-0 Tasmania run late in the third, the visitors were back up 12 again with the first two buckets of the fourth.

The JackJumpers kept coming but the Phoenix held firm for the 11-point win to improve to 13-12 and move back to sixth spot ahead of Melbourne United. The JackJumpers are 13-11 in fifth.

Again South East Melbourne didn’t shoot great with 38 per cent from the field to Tasmania's 43 and going 8/27 from downtown to 7/20, but they did take 13 extra field goals, pulled down 16 offensive boards and forced the JackJumpers into 14 turnovers.

Milton Doyle still top-scored for Tasmania with 16 points to go with five rebounds and five assists on 5/14 shooting.

Jack McVeigh added 15 points, Rashard Kelly 12 points and six rebounds, and Will Magnay seven points and seven boards.

JackJumpers coach Scott Roth was disappointed after the loss but gave full credit to what the Phoenix did well.

"They just manhandled us for most of the game and beat us in the effort and energy areas, and got the jump on us obviously in the first quarter and we could never just recover," Roth said.

"They played well and a lot of our stuff was self-inflicted in a lot of ways, but they did a nice job against us."

Ryan Broekhoff hit two threes to give the Phoenix the perfect start in the crucial encounter before Gary Browne and Mitch Creek stretched that opening to 10-3.

While Jack McVeigh hit the floor to give the JackJumpers a bit of a spark, South East Melbourne did maintain that 10-point edge by quarter-time to be up 24-14 on the back of having zero turnovers and forcing Tasmania into five of them.

McVeigh and Creek enjoyed going at one another early in the second quarter, but a couple of strong finishes from Browne helped the Phoenix to be up 12.

However, it was no surprise to see Tasmania hit back with the next seven points including a banked in three from Rashard Kelly to beat the shot clock and then his throwdown in transition.

The timeout proved the perfect circuit breaker, though, from Simon Mitchell and the Phoenix came out and scored the next seven points to go back on top by 12 and lead 46-32 by the break.

Creek put up 16 points and seven rebounds while as a team they pulled down 30 rebounds and just had three turnovers. Tasmania had just 19 boards for the half and seven turnovers.

South East Melbourne continued to have all the answers when going up 15 midway through the third quarter, but the JackJumpers were always going to turn the tide at some point.

It all began by them turning things around intensity wise and offensive rebounds were leading to second chance buckets, and eventually the JackJumpers turned that into a 15-3 run including a McVeigh three ball bringing it back to a three-point ball game.

However, South East Melbourne steadied with the last five points of the period to go into three quarter-time on top 64-56.

The only four points in the opening three minutes of the fourth came through Phoenix buckets to Kell and Williams to push the lead back out to 12 before Clint Steindl's only score of the game kept the JackJumpers within 10.

It was Doyle and Kelly doing their best to try and get Tasmania close enough to strike, but South East Melbourne continued to answer every challenge to win by 11.

The JackJumpers head straight to Far North Queensland for another crucial clash with the Cairns Taipans on Friday night. 

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 16

TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 75 (Doyle 16, McVeigh 15, Kelly 12)

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 86 (Creek 21, Williams 16, Browne 15) 

BOX SCORE