No jumping for joy: Roth praises grind, wants more

Handling the South East Melbourne Phoenix pressure, slowing their transition game, defending soundly and rebounding strongly were all key to the Tasmania JackJumpers’ bounceback Ignite Cup win.

It did not look that way early on Wednesday night in Traralgon. The JackJumpers arrived having lost seven of their past eight games and faced a Phoenix team coming off their biggest ever Throwdown victory.

South East Melbourne opened with 36 first quarter points. They shot 57 per cent from the field and went 5-from-9 from deep, which meant Tasmania had work to do.

The JackJumpers did well to stay in touch. Their 22 free throw attempts in the first half kept their scoring rolling and they led at half time. They also held the Phoenix to only 12 second quarter points.

Tasmania went on to win 89 to 81. They outscored the Phoenix 62 to 45 over the last three quarters. They held South East Melbourne to 28 per cent shooting from the field and 14 per cent from behind the arc.

Coach Scott Roth wasn't delighted with the performance, but he did see it as a strong step forward.

"Delighted, let's calm down a little bit, but I'm happy about the fact that we ticked some boxes and continued to try to stabilise our defence the best we possibly can," Roth said in the post-game press conference.

"That's going to lead us to better places and we just have not been consistent enough for long enough in games to give us chances, but this game got in the mud which is where we love to play.

"We did a much better job just across the board with our intent to go play our defensive foundational thing, and we concentrated on those and the guys were pretty relentless.

"We had some other opportunities at the rim and we could not score and the game got a little bit tight again, but they just kept grinding away and there were a lot of positives to take away."

The Phoenix pride themselves on their full court defensive pressure and their ability to force turnovers. That allows them to get out and run on offence, which has helped them become the highest scoring and fastest pace team in NBL26.

The JackJumpers handled that pressure well and committed only eight turnovers. They also won the rebounding count 53 to 44, including 14 offensive boards to 10. They took 34 free throws to 26, and all of that added up to a winning formula.

"We were obviously very conscious about them and they are one of the hardest playing teams in the league, and they do create a lot of turnovers with their activity and the length they have," Roth said.

"You definitely have to take care of the ball and you cannot be sloppy in your approach with them, and give them live ball turnovers in transition because they will do a number on you.

"I thought for the most part we did a good job there and took care of the ball, and more importantly the rebounding was again pretty solid for us and they are things that we can do, and we have to make sure we are on point with it as we move into this next game."

Tasmania now heads to Cairns for a clash with the Taipans on Saturday. Tip-off is at 5.30pm AEDT live on ESPN.