JackJumpers hold out Hawks for crucial win

The Tasmania JackJumpers got the hard earned win they needed from WIN Entertainment Centre on Tuesday night beating the Illawarra Hawks 92-89 to maintain their hold on a position inside the NBL's top four to open Round 15.

Every time the JackJumpers threatened to pull away the Hawks would respond as well. Tasmania led by six in the first quarter, 12 in the second, seven in the third and 14 in the fourth, but the Hawks never gave up the ghost and got back within four with two minutes left.

Tasmania went on to win by three after a three on the buzzer from beyond half court to Sam Froling for the Hawks and it was an important victory the JackJumpers improve to 12-10 to stay in fourth position.

Rashard Kelly top-scored for the JackJumpers with 18 points and four rebounds while point guard Josh Magette ran the team expertly for nine points, seven boards, six assists and three steals.

Jack McVeigh added 15 points and six rebounds, Jarrad Weeks 14 points and three boards on 4/5 from three-point land, Sean Macdonald 12 points and four rebounds, and Milton Doyle 10 points, six assists and four boards.

JackJumpers coach Scott Roth was relieved to get the road win but knows his team needs to play better moving forward.

"You win on the road and it might not have been pretty, and there's a lot of areas that we're just not consistent in right now," Roth said.

"We had some leads and just gave them right back, we just have to do better. We have monumental games every time we play or so it seems like at the moment. Every game means something and it's exciting to be involved with that."

Sam Froling came out strongly for the Hawks scoring his team's first six points but a couple of triples from Jarrad Weeks back on his old home floor helped Tasmania to the early 10-6 lead.

The Hawks had come to play, though, and when Tyler Harvey landed his first three of the game, he put his team in front. That's where they stayed until triples from Sam McDaniel and Sean Macdonald, and a three-point play from Will Magnay gave Tasmania a 9-0 run.

That helped the JackJumpers to the 29-26 lead after one and then they really threatened to run away with it to start the second. When Macdonald hit his second long ball, the visitors were up seven and Jacob Jackomas called for time two minutes into the second quarter.

Josh Magette soon stretched the Tasmania lead to 12 but Illawarra wouldn’t be denied. Harvey hit a couple of triples as part of a 10-0 Hawks run to cut the deficit to two.

Yet another bomb from downtown to Harvey levelled scores up soon after but Milton Doyle scored his only points of the half in the last two minutes to give Tasmania the 54-47 half-time edge.

Not much separated the teams at the break with Tasmania shooting 52 per cent from the floor to Illawarra's 53 while the JackJumpers went 7/17 to the Hawks' 6/16 from downtown with 17 turnovers between them.

Tasmania again threatened to open up a handy lead to start the second half going up seven after a couple of strong finishes from Rashard Kelly, but things then dried up and they wouldn’t score for another four minutes.

Illawarra took advantage scoring six points in that time to make it a one-point game before it was Macdonald with a couple of steadying buckets for the JackJumpers to help them lead 69-64 again at three quarter-time.

It was Fabijan Krslovic's strong work inside to start the fourth quarter that helped Tasmania back out to an eight-point lead before Kelly's impressive night continued with five straight points to make it a double-figure lead.

The Hawks kept coming though. The margin was back to four with two minutes to play on the back of consecutive three-point plays from Grida. 

While Tasmania did enough to hold on and win with a couple of McVeigh dunks thrown in, the Hawks kept fighting right to the buzzer including a bomb from Froling as time expired.

Both teams have a quick turnaround with the JackJumpers straight home for a potentially season-defining match up with the Adelaide 36ers on Thursday. 

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 15

TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 92 (Kelly 18, McVeigh 15, Weeks 14) 

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 89 (Harvey 22, Froling 21, Deng 16, Grida 16)

BOX SCORE