Kings Catch Fire to Blow Away JackJumpers

The Sydney Kings hadn’t quite been their usual selves for nine straight quarters, but they turned things around like only they can after quarter-time in Hobart on Friday night to beat the Tasmania JackJumpers 91-77.

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Despite still sitting atop the NBL table with two rounds to go, the Kings lost twice last week in Perth and at home to New Zealand, and found the going tough in the first quarter on Friday night at MyState Bank Arena.

Sydney had nine turnovers in the opening quarter alone with Tasmania opening up an 11-point lead, but the Kings turned the tide in stunning fashion with a dynamic second quarter.

Sydney put up 37 points on 14/16 shooting to be up 12 at half-time before they blew the game wide open further to start the second half with 14 of the opening 17 points as DJ Vasiljevic caught fire and Xavier Cooks finished emphatically in transition.

That helped the Kings end up opening up a 24-point lead during the second half before winning by 14 to improve to 18-7 on the season to remain in first place. 

The result keeps the pressure on Tasmania to confirm a playoff position now with a 14-12 record and games to finish against Perth and Illawarra.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">X ? GONNA ? GIVE ? IT ? TO ? YA ?<br><br>Xavier Cooks gets UP ?<br><br>Catch the action live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel. <a href="https://t.co/FbMyGhM8kk">pic.twitter.com/FbMyGhM8kk</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1618909383848759296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Sydney ended up shooting 60 per cent from the floor for the game and hit 9/22 from three-point range and 16/22 from the foul line. But after quarter-time, they outscored the JackJumpers 77 to 52 while shooting 28/43 from the floor and 8/19 from downtown.

DJ Vasiljevic continues to enjoy playing Tasmania delivering 24 points with 5/8 three-point shooting while Derrick Walton Jr finished with 16 points, four assists, three rebounds and two steals.

Xavier Cooks added 12 points and six rebounds with Jaylin Galloway contributing 13 points and Justin Simon 11 points to go with outstanding defence limiting Milton Doyle to nine points on 3/10 shooting.

Sydney coach Chase Buford was pleased with the response from his team after quarter-time to be able to come out and play the way they hoped to be able to.

"It was really not a good start for us on a lot of levels," Buford said. 

"Turning it over for sure, but the second chance opportunities and offensive rebounds really gave them life as well. A team like Tassie, that's what they do, they beat you on extra possessions and getting more shots from you. 

"They shot 18 more shots tonight than us and one more free-throw which is not a very easy ratio to overturn the way we did. But we did shoot 60 per cent from the floor after an abysmal first quarter. 

"The guys really got out and ran in transition when we forced them to take a lot of tough jumpers. We rebounded and just looked to run at every opportunity, and that led to a lot of easy baskets in transition."

Isaac White top-scored for Tasmania with 11 points in just 13 minutes with Rashard Kelly adding 10 points and six rebounds, Josh Magette nine points and two assist, and Fabijan Krslovic nine points, five rebounds, three steals, two blocks and two assists.

Tasmania coach Scott Roth just gave full credit to Sydney for being too good on the night.

"The start was great but congratulations to Sydney and Chase and their group over there," Roth said.

"They're just better than us and we had no answer for them. We have to now flip the page and move on quickly to another game on Sunday. 

"There's some lessons to be learned but at the end of the day with two games left we have refocus quick and regroup, and have a good day tomorrow with some review and get ready to go Sunday."

While Derrick Walton Jr opened the game with a three-pointer for Sydney, Tasmania soon worked on top with the next eight points including a three-point play to Milton Doyle and Josh Magette knocking down a tech foul against Kings coach Chase Buford.

Xavier Cooks and Will Magnay traded and-one plays before the JackJumpers hit the next six points including a Rashard Kelly dunk after forcing a backcourt turnover.

Those turnovers became the story of the first quarter with the JackJumpers forcing the Kings into nine of them and scoring 12 points from them to go into quarter-time in control 25-14.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">CENTRES SHOULDN&#39;T DO THAT ???<br><br>Rashard Kelly forces the Kings&#39; ????? turnover of the quarter and finishes strong ?<br><br>Catch the action live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel. <a href="https://t.co/TdJNTRpPSL">pic.twitter.com/TdJNTRpPSL</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1618895002909949952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

You got the feeling if Sydney started taking care of the ball better they could get back into the game, and that's exactly what happened in the second quarter.

The Kings didn’t have another turnover for the rest of the half and got on a roll during the second period piling on 37 points to turn the game on its head.

Tasmania managed just the 14 points as a result with the Kings shooting a simply phenomenal 14/16 from the floor for the quarter including 3/5 from beyond the arc and 6/7 at the foul line.

It was the kind of offensive quarter only the Kings can produce and as a result they turned an 11-point deficit at quarter-time into a 51-39 advantage by the half-time break.

Sydney built on that momentum in some fashion to start the second half with seven points in a minute, including the first five from Vasiljevic. Another 7-0 run including a triple from Vasiljevic and dunk in transition from Cooks then saw Kings really making a statement up 23.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If the ? calls it &quot;textbook&quot;, it must be pretty good stuff ?<br><br>We&#39;ve got a belter of a game on our hands and MyState Bank Arena ?<br><br>Tune in on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel. <a href="https://t.co/kAdlemINUQ">pic.twitter.com/kAdlemINUQ</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1618899853928722434?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

They would remain in control 74-54 at three quarter-time with Sydney's lead back out to 25 to start the fourth when Vasiljevic knocked down a fifth three-pointer of the evening.

A couple of late three-pointers for Tasmania to Isaac White at least helped Tasmania close the final margin to 14 but it was quite the statement performance from Sydney.

Both teams play again with a short turnaround to Sunday with the JackJumpers remaining at home to the Perth Wildcats. The Kings will be hosting the South East Melbourne Phoenix in another crucial match up for both teams.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 17

TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 77 (White 11, Kelly 10, Magette 9, Doyle 9, Krslovic 9)

SYDNEY KINGS 91 (Vasiljevic 24, Walton Jr 16, Galloway 13) 

BOX SCORE