Roth happy to give fans late Christmas gift

Scott Roth was relieved for the Tasmania JackJumpers fans more than anything they got to enjoy a win in their last home game of 2025 to reward them for their loyalty with the team continuing to head in the right direction.

The JackJumpers were back at MyState Bank Arena on Monday night attempting to hit back from a Boxing Day loss to the New Zealand Breakers which left them having won just two of eight matches in the building so far in NBL26.

Tasmania got out to a flying start and led by as much as 19 points late in the second quarter, but the game still ended up going down to the wire with the South East Melbourne Phoenix getting all the way back within a point and then having a chance to force overtime at the death.

But the JackJumpers held on for the 87-84 win to stay solid in sixth position with a 10-12 record with Roth just happy for the fans inside MyState Bank Arena to get to celebrate a win just after Christmas, and to close out 2025.

"It's obviously a good Christmas present for them even if it's a little late, but it's still good," Roth said.

"It is something that we've been stressing about in this building and we just haven’t done a very good job of going for long enough and hard enough to get some of these games across the line.

"Hopefully that will start to turn over the next few more games that we have back here in the building, but this place is electric and it's the best place in the league to play.

"The fans love this team and the state loves this team, and we appreciate all the support in the good times and the bad times.

"We've had some moments where we've been not quite as good as we've needed to be but they just keep showing up and supporting us. The love they give us is incredible."

Given the new-look nature of the JackJumpers team in NBL26 including three new and young imports with Bryce Hamilton, Tyger Campbell and David Johnson, Roth always knew it could very well turn out being a rollercoaster ride.

They are still missing the veteran guidance of Anthony Drmic with his back injury too having lost championship heroes Clint Steindl and Milton Doyle in the off-season, but even though it's not always a linear growth, Roth does feel they are trending in the right direction.

"I don't know how many times we have to say it, but we are a work in progress and it's not pretty," Roth said.

"We played a good first half of basketball and got away from a few things after that and found a way to get across the line, but we've obviously had too many of those at home.

"Our guys stayed poised just long enough to make enough plays down the stretch and give them (Phoenix) credit for fighting like hell to get back into the game and make it as close as it was.

"But we're two steps ahead and one step back at the moment, and we're a little bit Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde at times but these guys do keep fighting so the effort for us was really good again."

There were a lot of areas of the game against South East Melbourne for Roth to be happy about with how the team played including their aggressiveness to attack the basket and get to the foul line 32 times.

The only problem was knocking down those free throws and they only made 19 at 59 per cent which did leave the door open for South East Melbourne to fight back, and they almost completed the comeback as a result.

"We did obviously lay an egg there and the one thing we were very conscious about was taking away their three-point shooting so I thought we did a relatively job with that area," Roth said.

"Then the rebounding can be tough when they're shooting that many threes and the ball's coming off the way it was but that's something that we've said in the past we need to address.

"But when you get to the line 32 times, we have to shoot a much better percentage than that."

Ever since Majok Deng joined the JackJumpers for the championship season in NBL24, he has shown his ability to not only score points quickly, but do it when the team needs it the most and that was again the case with his 21 points against the Phoenix.

That included two clutch free throws to push back out to a three-point lead with him going 6/8 from the foul line and the rest of his team just 13/24.

"He's one of those guys that can be an X-factor for us along with David Johnson because they can score in bunches in a short period of time," Roth said.

"Jook was very steady during this entire game and obviously made some big shots, and had some critical foul shots for us, and he just did a nice job at both ends of the floor.

"We need that from him every night and 21 points is wonderful but we need the threat of him on the floor and he was fantastic tonight."

Monday night's game was a fourth for the JackJumpers in the space of nine days either side of Christmas and now by the time they face the Illawarra Hawks in Wollongong on New Year's Eve, that will be five games in 11 days.

Roth knows it's just a reality that every team will have to deal with at some point, but the longer the stretch goes the more bumps and bruises the players will accumulate without the chance to recuperate too much in between matches.

"I think they all have some bumps and bruises, and things that need to be taken care of, but it is what it is and it is a hectic five or six games here," Roth said.

"We have this quick turnaround and then we come back for a day to recover and then we have United back again so it's real and we just have to continue to hopefully through this patch keep our head above water, and keep fighting.

"I do believe that every team is going to have something coming up in the next few weeks here of these kinda stretches that will test you physically and mentally."