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The Tasmania JackJumpers have won a sixth straight NBL game, handing Melbourne United a fourth consecutive loss in the process.
Last season's NBL championship combatants continue heading in contrasting directions, with Tasmania making it six straight wins by condemning Melbourne United to four successive losses in a 97-91 win.
The JackJumpers continued their streak at John Cain Arena on Monday night, overcoming the absence of star centre Will Magnay to be on top all evening, with Jordon Crawford scoring 12 fourth-quarter points on his way to 16 with six assists.
Tasmania arrived having beaten United in seven of nine meetings in the building, including when they secured the championship earlier this year.
Melbourne were boosted with the return of Chris Goulding and Marcus Lee, but were on their first three-game losing run in more than two years while conceding more than 112 points in losses to Brisbane, Illawarra and South East Melbourne.
Tasmania piled on 36 points in the first quarter with six three-pointers including three from captain Clint Steindl (12 points) before he was hampered the rest of the night with a rolled ankle.
The JackJumpers built a 14-point lead soon before half-time before Melbourne scored the last 10 points of the half.
It was just a one-point game at the end of the third quarter but Tasmania were again up eight early in the fourth, with Melbourne losing starting centre Rob Loe (10 points, eight rebounds) after he was ejected for lashing out on Anthony Drmic.
While United coach Dean Vickerman acknowledges Loe was provoked, he knows his players need to be better.
"Rob's got to be better than that and he's got to be disciplined," he said.
"We talked about Drmic being an agitator and we can't be the one to retaliate, and we did and we got punished for it tonight."
Crawford pushed Tasmania's lead back to 12 and they ended up winning by six while doing it by committee in the absence of Magnay.
Reuben Te Rangi had a season-best 15 points with 3-of-5 shooting from deep while Milton Doyle and Majok Deng added 11 points each, and Sean Macdonald an important seven points and three assists.
"We hung tough in some areas and the guys had a tremendous amount of fight," said JackJumpers coach Scott Roth.
"Obviously it was a great effort from us across the board with a lot of different guys, and Clint Steindl started to get us going.
"Then GG (Gorjok Gak) gets in there and hits a couple of threes, Te Rangi was just on point and we had a lot of guys in that next man mentality taking one little more step."
Melbourne were able to use their size advantage to have 22 offensive rebounds for 17 second chance points, but only shot 10-of-32 from deep and 11-of-20 at the foul line.
After their quartet of losses they are 12-8 going into seven straight road games.
Goulding finished with 18 points on his return from an ankle injury.
Matthew Dellavedova added 16 points and nine assists, Marcus Lee 14 points and seven rebounds, and Shea Ili 13 points, seven boards and six assists.
