Drmic’s season in doubt

The Tasmania JackJumpers could be without championship-winning veteran Anthony Drmic for the rest of NBL26, as coach Scott Roth tries desperately to find some answers to his team's four-game losing slide.

The JackJumpers were missing 270-game versatile veteran Drmic for a sixth straight game on Saturday night in the narrow two-point loss to the Brisbane Bullets.

His absence could well extend now for the rest of the season, with Roth confirming after the match that he has suffered a further setback with his back injury.

"I don't know when it was now, but I think two or three days ago and he'll probably be out indefinitely," Roth said.

"It will probably be quite a while, if we see him at all again this year."

There is more encouraging news on the personnel front for the JackJumpers, with emerging big man Archie Woodhill a chance to return on Thursday.

He suited up to play against the Bullets and could now hit the floor for the first time this season against the Adelaide 36ers, providing some much-needed back up to Josh Bannan, Will Magnay and Majok Deng in the front court.

"He was not able to play tonight, but we were down guys for shoot-around and just our layup line, and our pre-warmups so it was good to get him out and running about," Roth said.

"We're hopeful for him on Thursday that he'll be back."

The JackJumpers have been smashed by injury this season, with Sean Macdonald sidelined with a knee injury and David Johnson still out with a calf issue.

Roth remained upbeat despite his team’s fourth straight loss, lauding the performance of Ben Ayre and Nick Marshall in the narrow defeat to Brisbane.

Ayre finished with 14 points and hit 4-of-6 from deep, while Marshall impressed with 18 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists.

“Those two guys were fantastic and I love Benny to death. H just brings great energy and great swagger to the game, and plays with a lot of passion,” Roth said.

“He had another corner there that he’ll take a thousand times over and I just loved his effort and energy that brought us back into the game.

“Then I can’t say enough about Marshall, who’s guarding just about everybody on the floor and then we put him on Prather at the end of the game.

“He’s just growing leaps and bounds within our group and he’s got obviously a very bright future with us, and he was outstanding.”