JackJumpers Keep Marching to Upset United Homecoming

Believe it or not, the Tasmania JackJumpers are the hottest team in the NBL and they were able to hold out the comeback of the defending champion Melbourne United on Sunday for the 94-85 victory at John Cain Arena.

The JackJumpers arrived in Melbourne having won three straight but it was a United team playing their first home game since December 19 and looking to bounce back from having their winning streak ended in Adelaide a week earlier.

However, it was the JackJumpers that shot out of the blocks with the best first-quarter of any team this season as they put 36 points on United.

They kept going in the second quarter too with MiKyle McIntosh's best half of his #NBL22 tenure with 13 points as his team led by 12 at the break.

Still, there was always the feeling United would fire back and they did, thanks to Chris Goulding. The captain had missed his last 21 shots coming into the game, but that didn’t last long and after 14 first-half points, he put the team on his back in the third term.

He scored 13 points and Melbourne hit the front and it would have been easy to expect them to roll over Tasmania. That didn't happen. The JackJumpers closed the third quarter with the last 11 points.

Then after Jo Lual-Acuil got Melbourne back in front to start the fourth term on his way to his career-best night of 26 points and 21 rebounds in the absence of Ariel Hukporti and Jack White, the JackJumpers again answered.

This time it was the deciding response in the match with triples from Jack McVeigh and Josh Magette huge as the JackJumpers made it four straight wins in front of 8499 fans at John Cain Arena to be knocking on the door of the top four.

There was a whole lot to like for the JackJumpers including the career-best night of 16 points and four rebounds for MiKyle McIntosh. Jack McVeigh also provided plenty of inspiration and production with 17 points, three rebounds and two steals.

Josh Adams put up 16 points, four rebounds and three assists with Josh Magette adding 11 points and six assists.

It was an understandably delighted JackJumpers coach Scott Roth afterwards.

"It's a huge growth curve for us obviously. We've had some bumps along the way but we're slowly starting to figure some things out," Roth said. 

"To come in this building and compete like we did against the defending champions, we bent a little bit but we didn’t break and held our composure. We made the right plays down the end and we are just thankful, happy and lucky to get out of here with a win."

Melbourne just didn’t get enough support for Lual-Acuil's 26 points and 21 rebounds, and Golding's 29 points although Shea Ili was instrumental in the fightback with nine points and five assists.

United coach Dean Vickerman wasn’t happy with the response he got after last week's loss in Adelaide coming back on their home floor.

"After the start where we felt like this was a game after we lost in Adelaide and we would come back with a response, but as a group we didn’t get into our individual scouts in the first few minutes and their key guys came out and were allowed to be pretty comfortable," Vickerman said.

"Then in the second half of that first quarter, McIntosh was a beast and he got rolling. It took a while in that second quarter to really make a change about how we played defence. Giving up 36 points on your home floor in a response game in the first quarter was totally unacceptable. 

"I love us how we spend so much energy to fightback and get up three, and the way we come out in the second half, but again we had a patch late in the third quarter that cost us when I rested Chris and Jo. It was a time we needed others to step up and keep the scoreboard ticking over, and it didn’t happen."

The JackJumpers were chasing their first road win and while it was an ominous task on the road to the defending champions who were stung from a last up loss, they weren’t showing any intimidation.

Jack McVeigh was coming off his best game for Tasmania and scored his team's first six points and then on the back a triple from Josh Magette and two of them by Josh Adams, the JackJumpers led 15-9.

Chris Goulding shook off his shooting slump to steady Melbourne with a triple of his own, and while United weren’t horrible offensively with 23 points on 10/18 shooting, the JackJumpers were just unstoppable.

MiKyle McIntosh produced the best quarter of his NBL career with nine points and the JackJumpers the term on a 17-4 run to lead at quarter-time 36-23 on the back of the best quarter from any team this season.

Tasmania's lead was back out to 15 as well on three separate occasions early in the second quarter before again it was a three from Goulding that steadied the home team.

However, Matt Kenyon responded up the other end with the next five points and on the back of the 13 from McIntosh and 11 from Adams for the half, the JackJumpers were still up 57-45 at the major break.

The expected Melbourne charge came in the third quarter and it was sparked by Goulding. The captain hit three triples in the first five minutes and got fouled twice on three-point attempts as his team started the half on a 19-4 run.

They even took the lead and picked up all the momentum, but the JackJumpers couldn’t have been more impressive with their response. It started with three-pointers to McIntosh and McDnaiel before Fabijan Krslovic also connected from deep.

That saw Tasmania close the quarter with the last 11 points to lead 73-66 but again you always expected United to fire back, and they did. It was Lual-Acuil leading the charge on the way to his career-best night.

He scored the first eight points of the quarter and suddenly United were back in front and it was easy to think they'd run away with it from there. But that's far from what happened and Tasmania got the lead back with a Magette three and never again surrendered it.

McVeigh was huge again down the stretch including a dagger three with 52 seconds left. The JackJumpers then scored seven of the last eight points to record their first ever road NBL win.

Melbourne is now back in action with a Grand Final rematch against the Perth Wildcats at home on Saturday night while the JackJumpers remain on the road against the South East Melbourne Phoenix next Sunday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 10

MELBOURNE UNITED 85 (Goulding 29, Lual-Acuil 26, Dellavedova 11)

TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 94 (McVeigh 17, Adams 16, McIntosh 16) 

BOX SCORE