JackJumpers' next men up ahead of Jewels' debut

The Tasmania JackJumpers set a new scoring high in club history of 122 on Friday night but it was the likes of Ben Gold, Kody Stattmann and Biwali that impressed coach Scott Roth even more as the Jewels get set for their WNBL debut.

The JackJumpers have produced some remarkable wins over their short history and have already won an NBL championship, but there is every chance they have never had a smoother offence than Friday night's win over the Illawarra Hawks in Wollongong.

The numbers back that up as they smashed their previous high scoring mark of 114 by putting up 122 on the back of shooting 65 per cent from the field to go with 16/28 three-point shooting and 26/32 at the foul line.

As a result, the JackJumpers led by as much as 27 points but conceded 39 to the Hawks in the fourth quarter with the final margin back to 10.

That won't be glossed over by Roth even with the JackJumpers currently sitting pretty at 4-1.

"We played pretty well for three quarters and then had a miserable fourth quarter which was very, very unacceptable by us," Roth said.

"It was undisciplined and just not what we're about, but we did enough in those first three quarters to obviously give us a little bit of a cushion there until the guys just dropped their heads and stopped getting to work.

"It's a next-man up mentality with us in general and to come into a building like this that can be quite volatile at times to play in, I thought we were pretty poised in for three quarters.

"We'll focus on the whole four quarters and we'll definitely celebrate what we've done well, but what we end up doing when we get back to Tasmania will be focusing on concentration and finishing off a quarter like that.

"We were playing well until we just lost our concentration there."

The JackJumpers have been well short of full strength all season so far and remain without Bryce Hamilton, Ben Ayre, Majok Deng and Anthony Drmic.

They are still playing outstanding basketball with David Johnson (32 points in less than 18 minutes), Will Magnay (14 points, nine rebounds, eight assists, two blocks), Josh Bannan (25 points, seven rebounds, four assists) and Taran Armstrong (17 points, five assists) starring against the Hawks.

But also, Ben Gold as a rookie has come in and made an instant impact and then so have injury replacement pair Kody Stattmann and Biwali Bayles.

Stattmann is fresh off an MVP season in the NBL1 North with the Cairns Marlins, while Bayles had a standout NBL1 South season with the Bendigo Braves, but neither was signed at the start of NBL27.

Roth was willing to give them both a chance, has been thrilled with how they have embraced the opportunity and again couldn’t be happier with their contributions to Thursday night's win.

"Biwali came in and steadied the ship for us and unfortunately him and Kody have gotten labels, but we do very well with guys that get labels," Roth said.

"When they come down to us, we live up to our standards and we've had good conversations with Biwali about where he is in his career and what he needs to get done, and for him to come in here and just keep his mouth shut and do his job, which we ask all of our players to do.

"Kody is the same and they are two guys that were basically on the street about 10 days ago but now are playing in an NBL game for us and having huge, important minutes.

"It's a great credit to the coaching staff but it's also these guys trying to change the label of what people may think about them.

"We'll just keep reloading and keep finding players that want to do it the Jackies way."

The three-pronged front court when healthy at the JackJumpers last season of Bannan, Magnay and Deng was as good as any across the NBL, but once they weren’t all together, their absence was sorely felt.

That's where finding them some help was a big focus this off-season and why the addition of Kiwi rookie Ben Gold was so significant and he continues to deliver more and more every NBL game he plays.

"He's been a huge get for us over the summer to sign him and get him across the line, and he's growing leaps and bounds every single game," Roth said.

"He's just got to work on his foul discipline at times, but he's played in huge college basketball games and comes from a great college program where he was coached by a really, really good coach there so it's kinda seamless for him to fit in with what we do.

"He's got great size and mobility, he can shoot the ball and he's just scratching the surface with us. We'll continue to obviously use him heavily especially while Majok Deng is out and his availability to play both spots is huge for us."

It was a remarkable performance from Johnson against the Hawks especially considering he was only out on the court for 17:39 and fouled out early in the fourth quarter.

That didn’t go unnoticed by his coach, but when he was out there, he shot 9/10 from the field, 5/6 from the outside, and 9/9 at the foul line to put up 32 points and help the JackJumpers to a +42 with him out there.

He became the first player in NBL history to score over 30 points in less than 20 minutes but Roth certainly wasn’t surprised.

"Tonight it was DJ who was fantastic and then he lost his discipline on a couple of early fouls that he just shouldn’t be getting involved in, but every night it seems to be somebody stepping up a little bit," Roth said.

"We've always said that he is our most talented player without question and his skill set is undeniable, and the demand to play for us is quite high especially during the week.

"So to have him come back we demanded him to start to lose weight and work more on his body because his skill set is where it is, but the intent to go play and toughness to go play, and trim himself down to be able to play meant he came back in very good shape for us.

"He's scratching the surface and he's just super talented and he can obviously have nights like that, and we see it in practice where he drills shot after shot after shot. He was obviously a big factor tonight."

Now before the JackJumpers play their next game this season next Friday at home to the Adelaide 36ers, the Jewels will play their first ever WNBL game also at MyState Bank Arena on Thursday against Geelong Venom.

Roth knows what a big moment that is for the entire state of Tasmania.

"It's a huge moment for the state and for five years I've travelled throughout Tasmania, and one of the No. 1 questions I get no matter where I am is when is the girls team coming," Roth said.

"For many, many years in Tasmania, everyone had to leave the island to go find sports whether it be in media, coaching, playing and whatever it may be you had to leave the island.

"They don’t have to do that anymore and the women now have something to aspire to whether it's playing, coaching and those things are going to be wonderful for all the young girls growing up in Tasmania to have another pathway.

"The Devils are coming in shortly too and the island's cooking and we're excited about us raising the bar for all the sports teams in Tasmania and it's no longer a punching bag.

"We all Defend the Island for the right reasons down there and it is the grit and grind of what we do, and the Jewels will fit in seamless with us and it's going to be very inspirational for the young ladies to have something to look forward to."