JackJumpers beat United for sixth straight

Last season's NBL championship combatants continue heading in contrasting directions with the Tasmania JackJumpers making it six straight, handing Melbourne United four straight losses with Monday's 97-91 win.

The JackJumpers continued to love playing United at John Cain Arena overcoming the absence of star centre Will Magnay to be on top all evening to win by six with Jordon Crawford scoring 12 fourth quarter points on his way to 16 with six assists.

The JackJumpers arrived having beaten United in seven of nine meetings in the building including to secure their championship earlier this year.

Melbourne were boosted with the return of Chris Goulding and Marcus Lee, but were on their first three-game losing run in more than two years while conceding over 112 points in losses to Brisbane, Illawarra and South East Melbourne.

Tasmania piled on 36 points in the first quarter with six three-pointers including three from captain Clint Steindl (12 points) before he was hampered the rest of the night with a rolled ankle.

The JackJumpers built a 14-point lead shortly before half-time before Melbourne scored the last 10 points of the half.

It was just a one-point game heading into the fourth but Tasmania were again up eight early in the fourth with Melbourne losing starting centre Rob Loe (10 points, eight rebounds) after he was ejected after lashing out on Anthony Drmic.

While United coach Dean Vickerman acknowledges Loe was provoked, he knows his players need to be better.

"Rob's got to be better than that and he's got to be disciplined," he said.

"We talked about Drmic being an agitator and we can't be the one to retaliate, and we did and we got punished for it tonight."

Crawford pushed the Tasmania lead back to 12 and they ended up winning by six while doing it by committee in the absence of Magnay.

Reuben Te Rangi had a season-best 15 points with 3/5 shooting from deep while Milton Doyle and Majok Deng adding 11 points each, and Sean Macdonald an important seven points and three assists.

"We hung tough in some areas and the guys had a tremendous amount of fight," said JackJumpers coach Scott Roth.

"Obviously it was a great effort from us across the board with a lot of different guys, and Clint Steindl started to get us going.

"Then GG (Gorjok Gak) gets in there and hits a couple of threes, Te Rangi was just on point and we had a lot of guys in that next man mentality taking one little more step."

Melbourne were able to use their size advantage to have 22 offensive rebounds for 17 second chance points, but only shot 10/32 from deep and 11/20 at the foul line.

They have now lost four straight to be 12-8 going into seven straight road games with Goulding finishing with 18 points on his return from an ankle injury.

Matthew Dellavedova added 16 points and nine assists, Marcus Lee 14 points and seven rebounds, and Shea Ili 13 points, seven boards and six assists.

JackJumpers captain Clint Steindl hit three triples early on and his third kickstarted 11 straight points that saw the reigning champions open up an 11-point lead with Anthony Drmic adding five of those and Sean Macdonald an and-one.

Ian Clark and Chris Goulding tried to shoot Melbourne back into it with three balls, but Tasmania were still on top 36-26 by the end of one thanks to shooting 61 per cent from the field and 6/10 from three-point range.

The JackJumpers also scored 12 points off the seven United turnovers before Jordon Crawford opened the second quarter with his first four points of the contest.

Tasmania were still leading by that 14-point margin when Milton Doyle made a three shortly before half-time, but Melbourne then went into the break with some momentum on the back of scoring the last 10 points.

That included five to Goulding including a three as he had 14 points in his first half back but the JackJumpers were still clinging to the 51-47 lead at the break.

Triples to Fabijan Krslovic and Reuben Te Rangi early in the second half helped the reigning champs back out to a nine-point lead again but Melbourne continued to dominated the glass.

Those offensive rebounds helped the home team back to within a point at three quarter-time and the JackJumpers took back charge to start the fourth with 10 points to Crawford helping the lead back out to 12.

Rob Loe found himself ejected in that time too after a run in with Drmic, but Melbourne still worked back to within two points with Marcus Lee and Shea Ili doing the damage.

But Tasmania had all the answers to end up winning by six and now return home to host a Christmas Day clash with the New Zealand Breakers.

United begin a run of seven consecutive away matches in Cairns on Boxing Day against the Taipans.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2024/25

MELBOURNE UNITED 91 (Goulding 18, Dellavedova 16, Lee 14)

TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 97 (Crawford 16, Te Rangi 15, Steindl 12)

BOX SCORE