ROTH PUTS JUMPERS ON ALERT FOR TAIPANS

THEY’VE built a reputation from never saying die and coming back from seemingly insurmountable deficits, but Scott Roth says its fool’s gold for the JackJumpers to think it’ll always be the case as the Jackies get set to host a side he says is one of their toughest match-ups.

After overcoming a 14-point fourth quarter deficit to stun the Sydney Kings on Sunday, the JackJumpers now have a chance to make it four wins in a row and leapfrog Cairns into fourth spot with a victory over the Taipans in Hobart on Saturday.

While the JJs (8-6) will enter the MyState Bank Arena clash full of confidence, Roth admitted the Taipans (9-5) were a unique team whose make-up was sure to cause them problems.

“They’ve done very well from where they were last year and made some great improvements with their roster and they’ll be a handful for us,” Roth said.

“There’s a few teams in the league, with them being one, that we probably aren’t the greatest match-up against.

“They’re big, they’re athletic and they’ve got a lot of guys that can shoot.

“They present a lot of problems with their scoring and the size of them and we’ll have our hands full.”

While Roth reiterated how proud he was of his squad after its huge comeback win over the Kings last week, he said his side still had plenty of room to grow and that putting together a solid four quarter performance was a focus as they looked to avoid having to become the comeback kids once more.

“We haven’t put together an extended amount of really good quarters,” Roth said.

“We’ve had two quarters, two and a half quarters, we’ve had patchwork of quarters.

“Like in Sydney I told these guys it’s a little bit of fool’s gold to think you’ll just continue to keep coming back in these games.

“In the playoffs, if we are lucky enough to get into those, if you’re down 14 in the third quarter you’re probably not going to win those games and not going survive that kind of thing.

“So I think more consistency for us every quarter for us is our next step.”

One man set to play a huge role in Saturday’s match-up with the Taipans is JJs guard Milton Doyle who has skyrocketed into MVP contention after a trio of sizzling performances in the JJs recent three game winning streak.

While Roth was full of praise for his smooth-moving guard, he said it was his character that made him a vital clog in the JackJumpers machine.

“We do our homework (with our imports) and sometimes I’ll miss on talent and I can deal with that, but I don’t want to miss on character and he’s just a high character guy that blends in perfectly with our guys.”