Pinder Fires Taipans over JJ's for Indigenous Round

The Tasmania JackJumpers have become the masters of overrunning teams in NBL23 but the Cairns Taipans turned the tide on them sensationally on Saturday night at MyState Bank Arena for the 91-82 victory.

The JackJumpers were fresh off overcoming a 14-point fourth quarter deficit to beat the Sydney Kings last week as a shining example of their never-say-die attitude as they returned to Hobart for the first time since November 5.

After a tight tussle, Tasmania looked on track to give the home fans plenty to cheer about too when triples from Milton Doyle and Jack McVeigh midway through the fourth quarter had them leading the Taipans by five.

The Snakes delivered a stunning response to score the game's next 11 points and 16 of the last 18 to turn a five-point deficit with just over four minutes to go into a statement nine-point victory on the road.

The victory improves the Taipans to 10-5 on the season to retain their hold on a top four spot. The JackJumpers are now 8-7 to remain on the outside of the top four.

It was Pinder's night for the Taipans. He scored the most points by any player this season, the most in his 78-game NBL career and the most by anybody against the JackJumpers. 

He finished with 34 points, seven rebounds and two blocks on shooting 11/17 from the field, 2/2 from deep and 10/10 at the free-throw line.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CAREERHIGHKEANU?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CAREERHIGHKEANU</a> ?<br><br>Pinder 2/2 from three and sets a new career-high 32 points with this one! <a href="https://t.co/qVJ1NNxwwm">pic.twitter.com/qVJ1NNxwwm</a></p>&mdash; Cairns Taipans (@CairnsTaipans) <a href="https://twitter.com/CairnsTaipans/status/1604028882495340545?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 17, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Tahjere McCall provided strong support with 23 points, six rebounds, five assists and maybe most tellingly zero turnovers and didn’t have his shot blocked once.

Shannon Scott provided that cool head and calming influence for the Taipans with 12 points and six assists while DJ Hogg added 11 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Taipans coach Adam Forde felt that despite Pinder's massive night, it was the defensive performance led by McCall that was the biggest key to the win.

"Defensively the guys spoke about it and Tahj really drove it, and we highlighted it at half-time and made some adjustments," Forde said. 

"Even in the fourth quarter with the timeouts, this is the cool thing about this group and especially with Tahj is a lot of it is player led and player driven. They take care of business. 

"It was about getting it done on the defensive end and execute at the offensive end, and guys made some statement plays."

Jack McVeigh ended up top-scoring for Tasmania with 17 points, three rebounds and two assists on 3/5 three-point shooting.

Milton Doyle contributed another 15 points and seven rebounds with Josh Magette finishing with 13 points and four assists, and Will Magnay 12 points, four rebounds and three blocks.

JackJumpers coach Scott Roth gave full credit to the performance from the Taipans afterwards.

"First of all, congratulations to them. They played fantastic and it was a classic NBL game to me where it was a grinder, and comes down to the last two or three minutes," Roth said.

"I think they are one of the best teams in the league, if not the best team, personally just because they have size and athletic ability, and are tough to handle. I just thought they played very well and the ball got quite stagnant for us in the fourth quarter just in general. 

"We didn’t make any shots and weren’t able to contain them very much there in the last two or three minutes. I thought our guys fought extremely hard and weren’t smart here and there at times, but we had opportunities. They were just better than us really."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Magnay magic at both ends of the floor!<br><br>Watch NBL23 Live on ESPN via Kayo &amp; Foxtel<br><br>GAME DAY PARTNER: GAP Tasmania, Greyhounds make great pets. Foster or adopt a greyhound today. Visit <a href="https://t.co/qR9OyL1b8B">https://t.co/qR9OyL1b8B</a> <a href="https://t.co/rkXkhu0uY6">pic.twitter.com/rkXkhu0uY6</a></p>&mdash; Tasmania JackJumpers ? (@JackJumpers) <a href="https://twitter.com/JackJumpers/status/1604013952589246465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 17, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Jack McVeigh opened up the game with a three-pointer for Tasmania before DJ Hogg responded with three the old fashioned way for Cairns. Keanu Pinder was proving tough to stop down low but when McVeigh hit his second three, the home team remained narrow leaders.

Tasmania then also finished the first term strongly including late buckets to Clint Steindl and Rashard Kelly to head into quarter-time leading 24-21 on the back of 52 per cent shooting and despite the 10 points with eight free-throws from Pinder.

After a Steindl three to start the second period for Tasmania, Cairns worked back into it and it was about being aggressive going to the rim. Tahjere McCall made two trips to the line and Pinder was proving an unstoppable force.

However, the JackJumpers remained on top and Will Magnay even dropped a three ball. Josh Magette dropped two in succession soon after for a game-high nine-point lead.

Tasmania were still up 52-45 at the main break thanks to Kelly's three ball on the buzzer. Despite Pinder's 23 points for the Snakes and them going to the line 18 times as a team, the JackJumpers still shot 52 per cent to stay on top.

Pinder and Magnay traded buckets again to start the second half to continue that fascinating big man match up. McVeigh helped push Tasmania back out to a nine-point lead, though, after sitting out the second quarter.

The Snakes responded after an Adam Forde timeout and soon went on a run of scoring 11 consecutive points with the first seven of those courtesy of Hogg to give the visitors the lead once more.

Things stayed tight the rest of the third term with the JackJumpers clinging to a 72-71 advantage by three quarter-time.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A dunk so big it almost went in twice ?<br><br>Pinder with an exclamation point jam ?<br><br>Follow the action live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel. <a href="https://t.co/8Xd6EqMlfX">pic.twitter.com/8Xd6EqMlfX</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1604014795685916672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 17, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The fourth quarter started with a massive block from Magnay on Pinder before the Taipans star responded with a rejection of his own on McVeigh. Scott then dropped a triple for the Snakes who grabbed the lead.

It was Tasmania's turn to respond and they did firstly through McVeigh and with a three-pointer from the cool head of Milton Doyle. McVeigh added another three soon after to put the JackJumpers up five, but it was all Cairns from there.

It started with Pinder's second three-pointer of the night before he and McCall combined for the next six points, and Bul Kuol completed the 11-0 run that took them from five down to six up with just over a minute to play.

The final dagger was delivered by Scott from long-range and Cairns delivered the mighty impressive nine-point win.

Both teams have short turnarounds before playing again as part of Round 11 as well. The JackJumpers head to Adelaide to play the 36ers on Monday night. The Taipans return home to host the Perth Wildcats on Tuesday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 11

TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 82 (McVeigh 17, Doyle 15, Magette 13)

CAIRNS TAIPANS 91 (Pinder 34, McCall 23, Scott 12) 

BOX SCORE