Match Report v Sydney Kings (Round 5 NBL25)

The Tasmania JackJumpers responded to a their defeat to Illawarra in the previous round as you would expect with a strong first half on Friday night in Launceston at the Silverdome, but were eventually overpowered by the Sydney Kings for the 80-71 victory.

The Kings had 13 turnovers in the first half and found themselves 16 points down against the JackJumpers, but got going in the second half led by captain Xavier Cooks (15 points, 12 rebounds, six assists, three blocks).

Sydney held Tasmania to just 26 points the entire second half for the nine-point victory to improve to 5-2 and leaving the JackJumpers 2-4.

Tasmania forced the Kings into nine turnovers the rest of the first quarter and scored nine points off those including going on a 17-2 run.

Jordon Crawford started strongly scoring 18 points in the first half and stretched Tasmania's lead to 16 with a fourth three-pointer just before the half-time break which saw the JackJumpers still leading 45-33.

Sydney scored the last six points of the third term to be back within four and they wouldn’t be denied with 47 points to 26 in the second half to win by nine.

Crawford top-scored for the JackJumpers with 25 points with Majok Deng adding 11 points and six rebounds, and Will Magnay 13 points, five boards, three assists and three steals.

After the game Head Coach Scott Roth said:

“It was a tale of two halves really at the end of the day, we looked solid in the first half, but basically just got muscled and pushed around a little bit in the second”

The JackJumpers have a short turnaround to now leaving Launceston to head to Adelaide to face the 36ers on Sunday.