Roth Offers Opinion On Late Score Debate

The debate of running the score up at the end of games has been a back-and-forth conversation for the entirety of NBL23, and Scott Roth voiced his opinion on the issue following his side's win over Illawarra on Tuesday night.

The JackJumpers recorded a 92-89 win over the Hawks, and Jack McVeigh had two open dunks in the final 30 seconds when there was the potential to run out the game.

The Hawks then hit two threes in the final five seconds courtesy of Deng Deng and Sam Froling dramatically cut the margin.

Roth mentioned it is not on his radar to end the games running up the score, even if it costs Tasmania percentage and the potential of a higher position on the ladder.

“It’s sportsmanship and that’s how I was brought up,” Roth said post-game.

“I’m willing to do what’s right and what I believe how basketball is supposed to be played.

“With eight seconds to go and we’re up 10 points and we think we’ve got to jam a ball down someone’s throat to prove a point, then I wasn’t brought up the right way of how to play basketball.

“If you’ve got 36 seconds left on the shot clock and we have a possession going down we’re going to try and score, but if we have eight seconds to go and we’re up eight or nine to me it’s just sportsmanship and that’s how I was brought up.

“I understand the whole dynamics of it all, to me you just need the ball. That’s just me and it might cost us but I’m not a fan of that rule just in general of the points.”

The win saw the JackJumpers move to a 12-10 record on the season - good enough for fourth spot on the ladder. Roth says his side's defence has slipped at times and is an area of improvement if Tasmania want to secure a playoff position.

“Our defence has slipped in quarters, not total games. We’ve just had bad quarters that were unrecoverable at times, or we’ve just walked teams to the foul line a bit,” Roth said.

“But we continue to battle and fight.

“I don’t have to worry about ever telling these guys to be ready because they’re always ready to go.”

The JackJumpers play the Adelaide 36ers on Thursday at 7:30pm AEDT.