Round 3 GAME PREVIEW V SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX

GAME PREVIEW –

Round 3 –  South East Melbourne Phoenix v Tasmania JackJumpers  

Saturday 14 October, 8.00pm tip-off

John Cain Arena

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State of Play

The Tasmania JackJumpers continued their winning run on Thursday night with an impressive win at home over the Illawarra Hawks. The W takes their season to a 4-1 record as they prepare to take on South East Melbourne on Saturday.

The Phoenix are somewhat familiar with former JackJumpers Defensive Player of the Year Matt Kenyon suiting up in a lighter shade of green this season, alongside the likes of Ben Ayre, and Mitch Creek. 

The injury riddled Phoenix are 1-3 to start the season. South East Melbourne stunned title-hopefuls Perth in their second hit-out, getting out to as much as a 30-point lead at the Fire Pit, but while a fire was lit under the Phoenix, it was somewhat doused after road trip losses to both Cairns and Illawarra.

The Phoenix have had a full week to recover from their last game, while Tasmania are not only backing up from a late Thursday game, but also facing their 4^th game in 8 days including two trips across Bass Strait.

Last time they met  

NBL23 ROUND 16, January 18 2023 – Silverdome, Launceston

TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 75 (Doyle 16, McVeigh 15, Kelly 12)

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 86 (Creek 21, Williams 16, Browne 15) 

The Tasmania JackJumpers struggles in Launceston continued late in NBL23 with the South East Melbourne Phoenix snapping their five-game losing run at The Silverdome with the 86-75 victory.

JackJumpers coach Scott Roth was disappointed after the loss but gave full credit to what the Phoenix did well.

"They just manhandled us for most of the game and beat us in the effort and energy areas, and got the jump on us obviously in the first quarter and we could never just recover," Roth said.

"They played well and a lot of our stuff was self-inflicted in a lot of ways, but they did a nice job against us."

The JackJumpers came into the contest in fourth position having won the last two matches while the Phoenix had lost five in-a-row to slip outside the top six.

They played with the desperation of a team determined to bounce back. By the time the Phoenix opened up a double-digit lead early in the contest, they maintained that most of the way to record a 11 victory.

SRT Logistics Coaches’ take

Scott Roth said “they’ve had a pretty good start to their season and have got some offensive threats with Creek and Williams. It’s another short turn around for us, like last week, so we just have to regroup, recovery and push on”.

“There’s bound to be some fatigue set in after a string of games and short turn arounds but really that’s not an excuse for us. We have to do our scout, show up and take it a new game a

Ins & outs 

Tasmania JackJumpers: Will Magnay won’t suit up for the JackJumpers as he continues to recover from a foot injury sustained in the off season.

South East Melbourne Pheonix: Tyler Cook and Alan Williams are both out through injury.

Opponents on the Radar 

Will Cummings had himself a night-out against the Hawks in Round 2 with a game-high 28 points, 7 rebounds and 4 steals.