Milton Doyle inspires JackJumpers into NBL decider

Milton Doyle has produced an MVP-level performance while Jack McVeigh hit a new career-high as the Tasmania JackJumpers beat the Perth Wildcats 100-84 to advance to the NBL Championship Series.

In just their third season in the NBL, the JackJumpers are now into a second Championship Series as they booked in a meeting with Melbourne United with Wednesday’s 16-point game three win at Perth’s RAC Arena.

Tasmania lost the opening game to the Wildcats on Friday night in the same building, but responded in Hobart on Monday despite the absence of suspended centre Marcus Lee.

Trying to close the deal in hostile territory was always going to be a challenge, but the JackJumpers were cool right from the outset and it was Doyle who took control in the second quarter.

He scored 13 of his 24 points for the game in that period to go with nine assists which saw the JackJumpers turn into halftime leading 52-43.

Doyle added another seven quick points to open the second half and then a couple of three-pointers from fellow All-Second Team member McVeigh (27 points, 4-of-5 from deep) saw the lead out to as much as 17.

There was no let up from the JackJumpers with development player Sean Macdonald (nine points, five assists) showing how good he already is with a couple of big shots to start the fourth period.

Tasmania were back up 16 with seven minutes to play and went on to win by the same margin to book in a best-of-five Championship Series match up with Melbourne, starting on Sunday.

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On top of what Doyle and McVeigh did for Tasmania, Will Magnay came up huge once more with 18 points and nine rebounds while fellow big man Lee added eight points and two blocks.

Four-time MVP Bryce Cotton finished with 21 points for Perth, but Tasmania did a tremendous job denying him the ball to limit him to nine shots and seven free-throws.

Hyrum Harris was the only other Perth player to reach double-figures with 13 points with Tai Webster, Kristian Doolittle and Next Star Alex Sarr all scoring nine points.

Game one hero Keanu Pinder went scoreless for the Wildcats on four shot attempts in almost 20 minutes of court time as Perth’s season ended on their home floor in front of just 7467 fans.