Roth: Tasmania "Manhandled" by Desperate Phoenix

The Tasmania JackJumpers ended a two-game winning streak on Wednesday night against the South East Melbourne Phoenix after an uncharacteristic performance.

The JackJumpers fell 86-75 to the Phoenix, which resulted in the South East Melbourne side jumping to sixth place and closely trailing behind Tasmania, who slipped to fifth.

JackJumpers coach Scott Roth was disappointed with the first quarter efforts from his team and said they “succumbed” to the aggressor, an unusual trait for the gritty Tasmanian squad.

“They just manhandled the game. They beat us in effort and energy areas and got the jump on us in the first quarter and we just never could recover,” Roth said.

“I think they were just more desperate, we were not.

“They were the aggressor. At the end of the season like this when the games are going back and forth and everyone’s juggling around the standings, one team is going to inflict it well in their style of play of how they want to play and the other team is going to react to that or succumb to it. We succumbed to it.”

The Phoenix were up by 10 points in the first quarter, and pushed that to 14 in the second, and despite some comeback attempts, the JackJumpers couldn’t keep up.

Sitting fifth on the ladder, the JackJumpers’ road to finals is still not over with four games to go.

“We’ve got to put our footprint on the game straight away, at least that first quarter that we’re playing on our terms,” captain Clint Steindl said.

“Hopefully that will go a long way and the course of 40 minutes will pay its reward at the end.

“We have to build pressure in that first quarter to reward ourselves later in the game.”

Roth added: “We’ll be where we will be, we will either be in or out. That’s the way it goes.”

The JackJumpers take on the strong Cairns Taipans on Friday at 7:30pm AEDT.