Magette Fires Jackies Over 36ers

Josh Magette arrived a man on a mission and he set the Tasmania JackJumpers up for their eventual 97-72 win over the Adelaide 36ers thanks to some hot shooting to spoil the home team's entry into NBL23.

Magette clearly took it personally that he wasn’t required down the stretch or in overtime on Sunday in Tasmania's win against the Brisbane Bullets as he arrived at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre to open Round 3 on Thursday night.

It was Adelaide's first appearance of the season after their NBLxNBA trip including historic win over the Phoenix Suns, but Magette helped the JackJumpers to a 9-0 start.

He nailed four triples for 14 points in the first quarter in the best individual opening period from a Tasmania player in the NBL as their lead grew to 22 by quarter-time.

While the Sixers did threaten a fightback from there and had their moments, the JackJumpers never really gave the crowd of 8027 in Adelaide a chance to believe the comeback would succeed.

Tasmania had all the answers to make it consecutive wins with the 25-point victory while forcing the Sixers into 16 turnovers and scoring 24 points from those. The JackJumpers also went 15/38 from beyond the arc opposed to 5/21 from the Sixers.

 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">MAGETTE ABOUT IT.<br><br>The <a href="https://twitter.com/JackJumpers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JackJumpers</a> floor general has 17 points midway through the second quarter on 5/6 from deep ? <br> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Sports <a href="https://t.co/dQ7ydYcOed">pic.twitter.com/dQ7ydYcOed</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1580486808818720768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Magette had a spectacular all-round performance for Tasmania with 23 points, seven assists, four rebounds and four steals on 8/13 shooting and 5/8 from the land of plenty.

He got plenty of support too with Rashard Kelly delivering 19 points and six rebounds, Milton Doyle 16 points, Jack McVeigh 12 points and five boards, Jarrad Weeks 11 points with 3/5 shooting from long-range and Isaac White nine points.

JackJumpers coach Scott Roth was delighted with his team's effort especially given all the energy for the 36ers on their home floor.

"I thought we just came out with a really good intent. We've been working on little things to try to fix and our defence was quite steady throughout the night," Roth said.

"That's what we hang our hat on and take great pride in. We're trying to solve some of these issues we've had and then on the offensive end, our first quarters haven’t been great. 

"But this is our third game of opening up in an opposition team's building so it's a great effort by our group. This league is extremely tough so when you win on the road you thank your lucky stars and move on to the next one."

It was a rough start for the 36ers with Craig Randall top-scoring with 18 points but he did go 6/15 from the field and 2/10 from three-point range.

Robert Franks finished with 14 points and four rebounds, Antonius Cleveland 10 points and five boards, and Sunday Dech eight points, four rebounds and two steals.

Sixers coach CJ Bruton didn’t want to use the excuse of only having a few days back home to aclimatise coming back from the United States.

"There was a little bit of disconnect and a mindset and approach that saw us give up a few buckets early. I guess coming back to the NBL and the physicality is real so we found that out and weren’t switched on at the start," Bruton said.

"We could make excuses but I don’t want to throw those out there. I've said it all along that for myself and not speaking for the team, I've slept most of these days in the middle of the day and waking up two in the morning. 

"But we've done something that was great for basketball and for our league, and for our club and our team so right now we need to come back and switch into the NBL mode and be ready to go."

The JackJumpers were coming off their first win of the season, but they did that largely without Josh Magette and he was ready to show just how valuable he still could be.

The import point guard started the game with some simply stunning three-point shooting as he knocked down four of them in just over the first seven minutes, including one from metres beyond the arc when he was feeling it.

He ended up with 14 points on the back of that and Tasmania hit 7/12 from downtown as a team with Milton Doyle adding 10 points with the JackJumpers hitting the first nine points, leading 27-6 at one point and still being up 32-10 at quarter-time.

Adelaide were always going to respond and started the second term scoring 13 of the first 15 points with Craig Randall starting to feel at home on the Brett Maher Court. 

However, each time the 36ers threatened to get back within single digits Tasmania would respond especially through Magette and Jack McVeigh even though their shooting cooled to 3/12 from deep.

While Randall had 15 points to half-time, Adelaide only went 1/10 from beyond the arc and Tasmania were still up 51-37 with Randall taking all but three of those.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">TOLD YOU SO.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN + Kayo Sports <a href="https://t.co/Hsc9btTSOB">https://t.co/Hsc9btTSOB</a> <a href="https://t.co/7Gd38mBb9m">pic.twitter.com/7Gd38mBb9m</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1580489876184911873?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It was more of the same in the third quarter with Adelaide threatening a fightback including three balls from Daniel Johnson, Sunday Dech and Randall, but Tasmania kept answering and five late Rashard Kelly points kept them up 13 at three quarter-time.

An early fourth quarter three from Isaac White stretched Tasmania's lead back out to 17 and again the Sixers just couldn’t ever get within single figures as the JackJumpers made it back-to-back wins to the tune of 25 points.

Both teams back up again with another game in Round 3 with the 36ers to take on the Illawarra Hawks again on their home floor on Saturday. The JackJumpers remain on the road against Melbourne United on Sunday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 3

ADELAIDE 36ERS 72 (Randall 18, Franks 14, Cleveland 10)

TASMANIA JACKJUMPERS 97 (Magette 23, Kelly 19, Doyle 16) 

BOX SCORE