Phoenix Hit Back Hard to Return to Sixth Spot

Thursday, January 19, 2023

The South East Melbourne Phoenix have hit back in the best possible way to Monday's disappointment by heading to Launceston and beating the Tasmania JackJumpers 86-75 on Wednesday to return to the top six.

The South East Melbourne Phoenix have hit back in the best possible way to Monday's disappointment by heading to Launceston and beating the Tasmania JackJumpers 86-75 on Wednesday to return to the top six.

It had the potential to be a season-ruining loss for the Phoenix at home to the struggling Brisbane Bullets on Monday night for a fifth successive defeat.

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The challenge was significant to bounce back against the fourth placed JackJumpers at The Silverdome too. However, despite Monday's loss, it had encouraging signs for the Phoenix with 11 more shots than Brisbane, 11 extra free-throws, 23 more rebounds collected including 24 at the offensive end to six.

It's that sort of effort the Phoenix came out with again and this time they were able to capitalise.

In his second game back from a calf injury, Gary Browne was the composed and effective playmaker, and by the time the Phoenix opened up a double-digit lead early in the contest, they maintained that most of the way.

South East Melbourne's lead was 14 by half-time and even after an 11-0 Tasmania run late in the third, the visitors were back up 12 again with the first two buckets of the fourth.

The JackJumpers kept coming but the Phoenix held firm for the 11-point win to improve to 13-12 and move back to sixth spot ahead of Melbourne United. The JackJumpers are 13-11 in fifth.

Again South East Melbourne didn’t shoot great with 38 per cent from the field to Tasmania's 43 and going 8/27 from downtown to 7/20, but they did take 13 extra field goals, pulled down 16 offensive boards and forced the JackJumpers into 14 turnovers.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Rowdy starting on a high from deep! ?<br><br>6?? points so far from <a href="https://twitter.com/RBroekhoff45?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RBroekhoff45</a> ?<br><br>? <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNAusNZ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ESPNAusNZ</a> ?? <a href="https://twitter.com/kayosports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kayosports</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/Foxtel?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Foxtel</a> <a href="https://t.co/RSgCBmCOTa">pic.twitter.com/RSgCBmCOTa</a></p>— South East Melbourne Phoenix (@SEMelbPhoenix) <a href="https://twitter.com/SEMelbPhoenix/status/1615631651182374912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 18, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Mitch Creek ended the night with 21 points, 11 rebounds and five assists with Alan Williams delivering 16 points and six boards, Gary Browne 15 points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals, and Ryan Broekhoff eight points and seven boards.

Trey Kell III also not only scored eight points and had five assists but played some impressive defence on Milton Doyle.

Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell was pleased with the way his team was able to stand up to physicality and pressure from the JackJumpers and prevail.

"Tassie's a good team and you know when you come to play them that they are going to test you physically, they are going to test you mentally and there's no give in that team," Mitchell said.

"You've got to match them, you've got to match their efforts and their physicality. If you supersede it then you are going to let talent prevail and I thought that's what happened tonight. I thought we were able to match them physically and we were just a little bit better on the night."

Speaking of Doyle, he still top-scored for Tasmania with 16 points to go with five rebounds and five assists on 5/14 shooting.

Jack McVeigh added 15 points, Rashard Kelly 12 points and six rebounds, and Will Magnay seven points and seven boards.

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."

Ryan Broekhoff hit two threes to give the Phoenix the perfect start in the crucial encounter before Gary Browne and Mitch Creek stretched that opening to 10-3.

While Jack McVeigh hit the floor to give the JackJumpers a bit of a spark, South East Melbourne did maintain that 10-point edge by quarter-time to be up 24-14 on the back of having zero turnovers and forcing Tasmania into five of them.

McVeigh and Creek enjoyed going at one another early in the second quarter, but a couple of strong finishes from Browne helped the Phoenix to be up 12.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If there's a play that'll hype the crowd up, it's this one ?<br><br>Can the Phoenix hold on for the win in hostile territory?<br><br>Catch the final quarter live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel. <a href="https://t.co/C8tWFZ8ITq">pic.twitter.com/C8tWFZ8ITq</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1615654479164231680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 18, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

However, it was no surprise to see Tasmania hit back with the next seven points including a banked in three from Rashard Kelly to beat the shot clock and then his throwdown in transition.

The timeout proved the perfect circuit breaker, though, from Simon Mitchell and the Phoenix came out and scored the next seven points to go back on top by 12 and lead 46-32 by the break.

Creek put up 16 points and seven rebounds while as a team they pulled down 30 rebounds and just had three turnovers. Tasmania had just 19 boards for the half and seven turnovers.

South East Melbourne continued to have all the answers when going up 15 midway through the third quarter, but the JackJumpers were always going to turn the tide at some point.

It all began by them turning things around intensity wise and offensive rebounds were leading to second chance buckets, and eventually the JackJumpers turned that into a 15-3 run including a McVeigh three ball bringing it back to a three-point ball game.

However, South East Melbourne steadied with the last five points of the period to go into three quarter-time on top 64-56.

The only four points in the opening three minutes of the fourth came through Phoenix buckets to Kell and Williams to push the lead back out to 12 before Clint Steindl's only score of the game kept the JackJumpers within 10.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Pitbull Creek? We like the sound of that ??<br><br>The Phoenix forward is having his way early in this do or die clash. Tune in on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel. <a href="https://t.co/1yEvrK6bcL">pic.twitter.com/1yEvrK6bcL</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1615632974019715072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 18, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It was Doyle and Kelly doing their best to try and get Tasmania close enough to strike, but South East Melbourne continued to answer every challenge to win by 11.

The JackJumpers head straight to Far North Queensland for another crucial clash with the Cairns Taipans on Friday night.

The Phoenix return to Melbourne to host the Perth Wildcats at the State Basketball Centre.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 16

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

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

BOX SCORE