THE 12th Round of the National Basketball League (NBL)’s 2021/22 season wrapped up on Sunday, after a cracking batch of games over the weekend. Sunday afternoon saw the Tasmania JackJumpers travel across the Bass Strait to take on the Illawarra Hawks at WIN Entertainment Centre, in an extremely intriguing matchup given recent form.

The Hawks started the season in red-hot form, but have proved inconsistent of late, while the JackJumpers got themselves on a roll in the last month, pulling off a four-game winning streak in this time. This was broken in Round 11 by the Phoenix, but they would have still entered this clash with confidence in their ability to get the job done.

However, they would not have been bold enough to predict the manner in which they did so, with the competition’s newest side producing the best shooting performance of the 2021/22 season, hitting 22 shots from downtown, which equaled the competition record (in the 40-minute era). They were lights out from deep, and this ended up punishing the Hawks in a big way, with the home side unable to match this level of scoring, as Tasmania claimed a 10-point lead to continue their pursuit of the top-four.

Tasmania’s biggest contributor on the day ended up being high-scoring guard Josh Adams, who poured in a game-high 28 points, many of which were generated by his whopping eight buckets from behind the arc. After being a shining light in the loss to the Phoenix, Adams finally got reward for effort as he dragged his side over the line in front of a hostile crowd.

FIRST QUARTER

Adams surprisingly started his match off with a few misses from mid-range, as Illawarra got out to a ripping start and Tasmania found themselves on the back foot. After a quiet start to the contest, Adams finally got rolling with a couple of minutes remaining in the term, pulling up from behind the arc to drain his first field goal of the match. This was his only bucket of the first term, heading to the bench with the JackJumpers trailing by two points at the conclusion of the opening period.

SECOND QUARTER

To start the second period, Adams remained on the bench as coach Scott Roth looked to get his bench involved in the game. The guard returned to the court with just under seven minutes remaining in the term, and made an impact almost immediately by dishing out a nice pass to a wide-open Sam McDaniel at the perimeter. Following a quiet few minutes, Adams once again got in on the shooting action, draining a long-range bomb from a Jack McVeigh assist. He then returned the favour to find a wide-open McVeigh cutting to the hoop, who threw down the dunk to extend Tasmania’s lead heading into half-time, with the two sides separated by three points at the main break.

THIRD QUARTER

Adams kicked off the second half in style, draining a fading jumpshot from along the baseline as the JackJumpers looked to gain ascendancy over their opponents. He missed a couple of opportunities in the minutes that followed, but drained his third triple of the match, after combining well with teammate Josh Magette. He added one more shot from behind the arc for the term, as Tasmania grabbed a double-digit lead thanks to his hot shooting.

FOURTH QUARTER

The visitors had a 10-point lead at the start of the final term, but Illawarra was still a red-hot chance to come back and steal the win. However, they did not count for the shooting power of Adams, who opened his side’s account for the period with a nasty step-back three over Tim Coenraad. He chimed in again a few minutes late, showing no hesitation to continue firing shots off from three-point territory as he nailed another. By this point, it was evident that the JackJumpers were looking to get him involved almost every possession, and this resulted in two more three-pointers next to his game by the time the match concluded and he had guided Tasmania to a crucial win.