Developing Huskies squad makes a bright start to NBL1 season

Development might be the No. 1 focus for the Hobart Huskies men in the inaugural NBL1 season but the group has proved it has the mettle to be a serious player in the league.

New Hobart Huskies import Jalen Adams struggled early in the match but settled to sink 16 points in the fourth quarter. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

DEVELOPMENT might be the No. 1 focus for the Hobart Huskies men in the inaugural NBL1 season but on Friday night the group proved it has the mettle to be a serious player in the league.

While the squad boasts a number of last year’s Hobart Chargers SEABL champions – including starters Zac White and Mathiang Muo – a host of local talent will shoulder more responsibility in 2019 as coach Mark Chivers provides opportunity for them to develop.

And against Sandringham at the Kingborough Sports Stadium they showed they are up for the challenge by pulling out an 88-80 victory after being headed midway through the last stanza.

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Import Jalen Adams, who only arrived in Hobart on Wednesday fresh out of college in America, poured in 16 last-quarter points to finish with 26, producing some clutch plays down the stretch to drag the side across the line.

Muo and White combined for 26 points while Jacob Richards chipped in 11 including a couple of big buckets late which got the 1000-plus crowd on its feet.

The minutes were spread outside Adams (34 minutes), with Chivers holding true to his word that the south’s next generation will get the chance to shine this season.

“Those guys, they have played six games before the season started, that was our second game for the season and first with Muo and Jalen in the group,” Chivers said.

“It took a while, but I think in the third and fourth quarter we started to jell a little bit… they came together.

“We have a long way to go, defensively we were pretty poor and there are things we can improve on, I suppose if you can take a win and walk away thinking there are a few things we can do to make ourselves better, then we will take that.”

Chivers expects natural improvement as the squad spends more time together, and armed with youthful enthusiasm and untapped fear, is confident they can ruffle some feathers against some more experienced line ups, especially as Adams adapts to Australian basketball.

“He is such an unknown, hopefully he is a real smoky for us. He is out of a division three college, just desperate to start his professional career and some friends I know saw him and said he would be all right for us.

“He started off slow a bit, you could see he was struggling to find his way in this game … he will only get better.”