JackJumpers hammer increasingly shorthanded Phoenix

The Tasmania JackJumpers have kept the pressure right on the Perth Wildcats for a top two NBL spot with an emphatic 94-67 win on Saturday against the shorthanded South East Melbourne Phoenix.

The odds were stacked against South East Melbourne despite being at home at John Cain Arena with the Phoenix sitting last and missing key players Mitch Creek, Gary Browne, Alan Williams Craig Moller and Owen Foxwell.

That's exactly how it panned out too with the Phoenix just not able to remain competitive like they were a week ago against Melbourne United in the Throwdown.

Making matters worse for the Phoenix was the ejection of coach Mike Kelly in the third quarter when referee Marc Mill was quick on the trigger to give him two technical fouls in a matter of seconds.

That saw assistant Sam Mackinnon, who briefly coached Brisbane last season, take over the rest of the game but the JackJumpers weren’t about to show any mercy putting together a strong four-quarter display.

While inconsistent for a lot of the season, Tasmania had two strong wins last week to all but end the seasons of Cairns and Adelaide. That momentum continued in Melbourne on Saturday to keep their top two hopes alive.

The JackJumpers have just one game in their season remaining and that is next Saturday at home to the Wildcats, who they are locked in a battle with over a top two finish.

Tasmania are 15-12 following the emphatic 27-point win over the Phoenix but whether or not they are fighting over second spot next Saturday will depend on how the Wildcats perform at home to Cairns and away to Illawarra beforehand.

It was a strong all-round showing from the JackJumpers with seven players scoring in double-figures but nobody with more than 11 points, scored by Clint Steindl, Will Magnay, Sean Macdonald and Jack McVeigh.

Jordon Crawford, Anthony Drmic and Marcus Lee all added 10 points apiece as well.

JackJumpers coach Scott Roth was proud to have guaranteed another winning season.

"The biggest thing is that I'm super proud of this particular group because this is our third year in-a-row of posting a winning season," he said.

"I don't think it's ever been done by an expansion team so for us to do that three years in-a-row in this type of league, it was a little choppy for us during the course of the season, I'm super proud to get 15 wins and finish in the top three."

The Phoenix did stick with the JackJumpers for the first quarter but the longer it went, the more it blew out despite the 19 points from import Abdel Nader.

Ben Ayre ran the point without Foxwell and Browne for 13 points with encouraging signs from young big man Anzac Rissetto with eight points and four rebounds.

"I felt like tonight didn’t go very well," an understated Kelly said.

"They basically beat us in pretty much every category after the first quarter and that was the disappointing thing.

"Our guys have fought through everything the whole season and the crowd was here ready for it, and continued to yell and scream to pull our guys through, but it was frustrating."

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 19

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 67 (Nader 19, Ayre 13, Vague 8, Rissetto 8)

TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 94 (Steindl 11, Magnay 11, Macdonald 11, McVeigh 11)

BOX SCORE