JackJumpers show grit to hold off Bullets

The Tasmania JackJumpers looked like not capitalising on another strong first half but two late triples each from Craig Sword and Jordon Crawford saw the reigning NBL champions dig deep and beat the Brisbane Bullets 87-79.

The JackJumpers arrived at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre having lost their last three and sitting last, and they held the Bullets to nine points in the first 13 minutes on Saturday night.

That saw Tasmania lead by as much as 19 points, but Bullets captain Mitch Norton (20 points, four assists, three steals) lifted his team in his 348th game and had them leading by five with seven minutes to go.

The JackJumpers responded and even though as a team they had only made five three-pointers up to that point, two quick ones from Jordon Crawford (16 points, five assists) and another two to Craig Sword (eight points, four rebounds) saw them win by eight.

The JackJumpers came into the contest after two strong first halves last week in eventual losses to the Sydney Kings and Adelaide 36ers, and raced to another 13-1 start.

Tasmania were leading 28-9 early in the second period thanks to an Anthony Drmic (seven points) three ball and the reigning champions had all the momentum.

Brisbane did manage to get back within 10 by half-time with unlikely sources Norton, Tohi Smith-Milner (eight points) and Jarred Bairstow (seven points, six rebounds) combining for 21 of their 32 points.

The game then changed completely coming out of half-time and the Bullets lit up the Entertainment Centre with 30 points in the third quarter.

Brisbane were up three at three quarter-time thanks to a late Keandre Cook (eight points) three ball and then Norton's second triple had his team up five with seven minutes to play.

A couple of three balls to Crawford and another to Sword eventually proved the difference as Tasmania improved to 3-5 with the win.

Majok Deng stepped up for 16 points and six rebounds, Milton Doyle 15 points, six boards and four assists, and Will Magnay 13 points and nine rebounds.

Tasmania coach Scott Roth was proud of his group's effort to let their defence lead the way and to find a few more points.

"It's nice to get over 80 points, which is a relief, but your defence tells you if you've won or lost and the score tells you the points and how many you've won by," he said.

"Our defence has been remaining solid for five or six of these games, and we continue to harp on that, and it's a great credit to these guys who have worked extremely hard of trying to solve some of our issues.

"We just had really contributions really across the board with everyone earning their minutes out there, and did something. We didn’t drop our heads and just kept on fighting."

Casey Prather also had 11 points and four rebounds for Brisbane with Josh Bannan providing nine points and nine boards, and Tyrell Harrison seven points and 11 rebounds.

Bullets coach Justin Schueller wasn’t too concerned over the start, but just lamented not being able to close the deal.

"We end up with 79 and 70 of those over three quarters, and the difference in the start with this one was that I felt we had reasonable looks," he said.

"We just weren’t putting it in the hole and we felt pretty comfortable where we were holding them to 20 in that first quarter with the opportunity to fight back.

"We showed that for the rest of the way, the frustrating part is going to be when we look back at it the missed executions at critical times."

Tasmania came out ready to make a statement by locking in defensively and then opening up a 13-1 lead in the opening four minutes topped off with a three ball from Majok Deng.

It wasn’t until four minutes into the game where the Bullets managed a first field goal thanks to Josh Bannan and that did spark a 6-2 run, but Tasmania remained in charge and a three ball to Gorjok Gak saw the visitors leading 20-9 by the end of one.

The JackJumpers further blew the game open to start the second period with the first eight points topped off with a triple from Anthony Drmic after Craig Sword snatched the defensive rebound from Tyrell Harrison.

That had Tasmania leading by 19 points but Brisbane slowly worked back into the contest beginning with a three-pointer from Jarred Bairstow and a couple of makes from captain Mitch Norton.

Tohi Smith-Milner then landed a couple of three-pointers and Brisbane had got the half-time deficit back to 10.

The Bullets then hit the first five points of the second half and that turned into a 10-2 opening and they looked a totally different outfit, ending up within two with a triple from captain Norton on the back of an offensive rebound.

Harrison found himself running the break and dishing to Bannan for the dunk to tie scores up, and Bairstow put the Bullets in front against the team he won last season's championship with.

Another Keandre Cook three ball on the buzzer gave Brisbane the 62-59 lead going into the fourth but there were plenty more twists to come including the Bullets out to a five-point lead with a triple from Norton with seven to play.

However, it was a couple of three to Crawford, and then a huge one to Sword that suddenly had the JackJumpers up six with a couple of minutes to play, and they held on to win in a frantic finish.

The JackJumpers will be back in Launceston on Friday night against the South East Melbourne Phoenix while the Bullets have another full week in between games before a first Sunshine Stoush in Cairns against the Taipans.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2024/25

BRISBANE BULLETS 79 (Norton 20, Prather 11, Bannan 9)

TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 87 (Crawford 16, Deng 16, Doyle 15)

BOX SCORE