Roth on his stretched JackJumpers: ‘Bit scary’

The scoreboard says the Tasmania JackJumpers lost by six. The bigger story is that they were in the game at all.

Working with a rotation of just seven players, the JackJumpers nearly pulled off another escape act against the Perth Wildcats. They trailed by 14 with five minutes to play and their starting five had been on the floor for the entire final quarter, yet they cut the margin to four late and gave the home side a genuine scare.

They ultimately fell short, but Scott Roth couldn’t have been prouder of his undermanned group, even with an injury list so stacked with talent that it could almost take the floor as a team of its own.

“We don’t have a big margin of error and the guys fought like crazy,” Roth said.

“Our guys’ fight was incredible all night. I love our effort and the grit and grind with us is real.”

Emerging point guard Taran Armstrong led the way with 20 points and 7 assists, while Will Magnay (19 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists) and Josh Bannan (18 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists) were pivotal again. Dakota Mathias played all 40 minutes on his way to 17 points.

The fifth member of the starting group is a story in itself. A month ago, Kody Stattmann wasn’t on an NBL roster. On Thursday, he started in place of the injured Nick Marshall and finished with 11 points and 6 rebounds.

“We lose Marshall the other night to a sprained ankle,” Roth said. “So then Stattmann’s thrown in there and he was sitting at home about a month ago in Cairns hoping for an opportunity.

“When the door opens, he’s been good. He’s walked through it for us and he’s helped us tremendously, but now he’s thrusted into the starting spot.”

The only bench relief came from development player Nick Stoddart and Ben Ayre, who got through 10 minutes in his first appearance of NBL27 after a hip flexor injury.

“The guys that we have coming off the bench are obviously some developmental players,” Roth said. “But we don’t make any excuses for these guys to show up and continue to fight and battle. For about three, three and a half quarters, we did pretty well.”

Roth admitted leaning so heavily on the same five players came with risk.

“Those guys that are playing a lot of minutes, it’s a bit scary using them that much,” he said.

Then there’s the talent sitting on the sidelines.

“The five guys that were missing actually could probably be a starting unit at some point or another with (Bryce) Hamilton, DJ (David Johnson), (Nick) Marshall, Majok (Deng) and (Ben) Gold,” Roth said. “Those are five pretty good players.”

Help could arrive soon for the Jackies, with Johnson shaping as a game-time decision for Sunday’s clash with the Brisbane Bullets.

It will be a patient wait until the JackJumpers have their full contingent available, but at 8-4 and sitting second, they’ve set themselves up remarkably well given their injury crisis.