THE National Basketball League (NBL) season opener took place on Friday night, with fans thrilled to see their favourites back in regular season action for the first time in months. There were a pair of fantastic contests that took place across the courts, with the first match seeing the league’s newest side claiming a win in their first ever outing.

The Tasmania JackJumpers faced off against the Brisbane Bullets to kick off proceedings for the 2021/22 season, with the match unable to be decided in the first four quarters, as the two teams headed to overtime where the JackJumpers were able to emerge victorious. It was a terrific win for the competition’s newest expansion side, who entered this matchup as heavy underdogs, but were able to get the overtime win in front of 4738 fans at MyBank State Arena.

How it went down

The JackJumpers started the match in red-hot form, finding their offensive rhythm early in the opening minutes of the contest. They looked a veteran team with their ball movement on offence and their scrappy work on the defensive end of the court. Tasmania’s Josh Magette was one of the main reasons the team was able to deliver such a strong start to the match, finding his stroke from deep but also hurting the opposition on the inside. The quarter’s biggest highlight came when JackJumper duo Josh Adams and Will Magnay were able to combine, with Adams slicing through the defence before producing a perfect pass inside to Magnay, and the big man was able to throw it down with ease. By the time the quarter time buzzer rolled around, the JackJumpers took an eight-point lead into the first break, and it was evident that the competition’s newest team were no easybeats.

The second term saw a fight back from the Bullets, with the side able to draw on their league experience to overpower their opponents for the quarter. They were able to slowly chip away at the lead, bringing themselves back into the game around the halfway mark of the term, bringing the double-digit lead back down to just a one-possession game. A large part of this was due to the exceptional play of Nathan Sobey, who almost single-handedly led his side to a winning term, wreaking havoc both inside the paint (which included an incredible finish in heavy traffic) and from behind the three-point line. The Bullets ended up winning the term 22-15 and at the main break, the lead had been trimmed down to just one-point.

Second half thriller & overtime

The second half was a much closer affair, with the tough defence of both teams coming into play, with just a combined 26 points scored for the third quarter, which was a far cry from the first half. The two sides traded clutch buckets in the final term, as the Bullets tracked down the JackJumpers. There were no baskets more crucial than Sobey’s massive contested three with just six seconds to go. This shot tied up the scores and sent the game into extra time, keeping the MyState Bank Arena crowd on the edge of their seat in the season opener.

Extra time saw the JackJumpers regain control of the contest, and for the first time since the first term, they were able to stamp their authority on the contest. Overtime also saw the biggest highlight of the game, with the JackJumpers perfectly executing one of their set plays. A roll to the hoop from Adams and a pin-point perfect pass from Magette saw an outstanding alley-oop get the Tasmanian crowd out of their seats. In the end, a dagger three-pointer from Jack McVeigh saw Tasmania run out victors to the tune of nine points.

For the JackJumpers, it was the dynamic duo of Magette and Adams that ended up causing the most damage. The pair combined for 39 of their team’s 83 points, constantly proving a threat on the offensive end of the court, and proved even more effective when combing with each other in the same play. Magnay was also back to his dominant best, recording a double-double with his 10 points and 10 rebounds. For the Bullets, Sobey was nearly able to drag his side over the line, finishing with 24 points and six rebounds, but it was not enough, with the JackJumpers starting their time in the NBL in perfect fashion.