JackJumpers coach torn after record-breaking win

Tasmania’s offence may never have looked better. The JackJumpers set a new franchise scoring record on Friday night, but a 39-point fourth-quarter collapse left coach Scott Roth frustrated, even as he praised the new faces driving their hot start.

For three quarters in Wollongong, the JackJumpers were close to flawless, building a 27-point lead over the Illawarra Hawks before holding on for a 122-112 win.

>> JackJumpers march all over Hawks

The numbers back it up. The JackJumpers shot 65 per cent from the field, hit 16 of 28 from three-point range and went 26/32 at the foul line, smashing their previous franchise high of 114 points.

But the Hawks hit back with 39 points in the fourth quarter, slashing the margin to 10 by the final buzzer.

“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 for three quarters.”

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.

But they are still playing outstanding basketball with David Johnson (32 points in less than 18 minutes), Will Magnay (14 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 blocks), Josh Bannan (25 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists) and Taran Armstrong (17 points, 5 assists) starring against the Hawks.

Rookie Ben Gold has made an instant impact, and so too have injury replacements Kody Stattmann and Biwali Bayles.

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

Roth gave both a chance, and he has been thrilled with how they’ve seized it.

“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, they 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.

“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 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.”