Magnay proves unstoppable for JackJumpers

Will Magnay was rightfully proud of what likely was his best NBL performance to lead the Tasmania JackJumpers to a win over Melbourne United with his coach Scott Roth and rival Dean Vickerman were suitably impressed too.

After Majok Deng was a match winner with 21 points on Monday night in Tasmania's win against the South East Melbourne Phoenix and then Josh Bannan had 17 points in the fourth quarter on New Year's Eve in loss to Illawarra and 25 for the game, it was Magnay's turn on Saturday night.

The JackJumpers captain was an unstoppable force as he produced one of the best individual all-round performances of NBL26 finishing with 27 points on 12/18 shooting with 13 rebounds (six offensive), three blocks and two steals.

His 27 points is a career-high in his 153-game NBL career as was his 36:26 of court time. Even the numbers didn’t tell the full story of his impact because defensively he was a huge reason Melbourne only scored 75 points on 43 per cent shooting.

Magnay then sealed the 84-75 win for the JackJumpers with a three-pointer on the dish from Bryce Hamilton with 35 seconds to go.

Rightfully, he was proud of what he did afterwards.

"I don't know (if it was best game), maybe, but I think I've had more impactful games on defensive ends and stuff, but the ball was just going in tonight," Magnay said.

"That last three ball there was just half a second on the clock so I knew I couldn’t take a bad shot then and he (Roth) couldn’t yell at me for shooting three three balls.

"Obviously it was a good performance and I'm proud of myself, and thankful to the group who kept finding me and we're just onto the next one now, and back to work next week."

Roth has been challenging Magnay to be more aggressive offensively even if he wasn’t too sure on his three-point attempt, and he always knows he can bank on him standing tall defensively.

"Mags was a monster tonight on both sides of the ball, he was really impactful for us all night and he even threw a three ball in there which I was like 'No, no, no, but great shot' when he took it," Roth said.

"It was just a great effort by him and on both sides of the ball (best game he's played with us), and I'm a little shocked he only has three blocks because I felt like he had seven or eight, and numerous ones that he adjusted around the rim.

"Most of his impact usually comes on the defensive side, and that's kinda what he's hung his hat on, and rightfully so, but we've been harping for the last month about him hunting a little bit more offensively.

"We want him being a little bit more aggressive on that end and he continues to do the extra work, and his stamina is getting better and those are all really good signs for us."

Vickerman felt he had most bases covered in preparing for the JackJumpers even with assistant coach Jack Fleming unwell and Rhys Carter picking up the scout.

He wasn’t expecting such dominance from Magnay though.

"When you look at the game and you just say that Magnay was amazing tonight," Vickerman said.

"There were so many opportunities that we had coming downhill, two-on-one and he played two people extremely well tonight with his ability to protect the rim and deflect passes.

"Then he was effective at the other end as well so it's one of the best games I've seen him play for a while and he was a massive factor in the game."

While Magnay did most of his best work around the basket, his third three-pointer of the season in the final minute was crucial and he always had faith in teammate Hamilton to make the right decision even if it meant passing to him.

"Bryce is unselfish and I think in that New Zealand he had a similar situation where he maybe over dribbled it and ended up turning it over," Magnay said.

"I was just the one standing there, it could have been anyone, and he's an unselfish player and he trusts everyone and we all put in the work so whoever was in that spot was ready to take that shot."

It's the second win in a little over a week for the JackJumpers against Melbourne with Magnay taking on board how important it was for him to be physically imposing and aggressive.

"I'm feeling like we've played a lot of games in a short amount of time, but everyone was just telling to be aggressive and to keep attacking the paint," he said.

"I think we did a good job as a team when we played them in Melbourne of doing that so it was about trying to replicate that a little bit and tonight it was me taking a bit more shots.

"It might be Bannan next time and Majok the night after, but whoever's turn it is to step up and take those shots and be in the right spot, that's who we'll go to but it was definitely good to get the win at home."

Speaking of that front court, whether it's Bannan, Deng or Magnay, they are as good as a big man trio in the league with any of them able to come up huge any given night as they have the past three games.

Magnay couldn’t think of a better front court combination to be part of.

"We're confident we will be competitive and we go out every game trying to win everything, and trying to win our match up," Magnay said.

"Sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn't, but the work we put in all season is building and we're just going to keep going back to it.

"We definitely have confidence in our bigs group."

Now that the JackJumpers have got through a horror run of playing six games in the past 14 days, they don't play again until facing the 36ers in Adelaide on Friday with Magnay looking forward to the mental freshening up as much as anything.

"It will be nice and just turning off the mind more than anything is what I'm looking forward to because the body's feeling good and most of the guys in there are feeling good," Magnay said.

"We could probably keep going if we had to, but it will be nice to just shut it down and step away from the game and enjoy what Tassie's got going on at the moment for a couple of days at least."