Breakers too strong for Taipans in NZ

The Kenfrost Homes Cairns Taipans have opened their NBL Ignite Cup campaign with a 98-75 loss to New Zealand Breakers at Spark Arena in Auckland on Wednesday night.

Parker Jackson-Cartwright scored 21 of his game-high 27 points in the opening half as the defending NBL Ignite Cup champions ran away with a 23-point victory.

Jack McVeigh toiled hard all evening for the Taipans, scoring a team-high 16 points but struggled from beyond the arc, only hitting on one of his 11 attempts.

The Breakers started with all the momentum, scoring the first seven points of the contest before Cairns showed some real fight and got back into the contest.

Shaun Bruce swished a three-pointer on the quarter time buzzer to reduce the Breakers lead to 19-18.

The Taipans went on a 9-0 to close the opening quarter and into the second quarter, a Kyrin Galloway dunk gave Cairns the lead for the first time in the match at 22-19.

But the Breakers were too strong, especially from the three-point line, to take out the full seven NBL Ignite Cup points.

TRIPLE THREAT SINKS TAIPANS

New Zealand were locked in from long range all game and the three-point shooting percentage was the difference in the game.

The home side swished 15 of their 27 attempts from the land of plenty, where the Taipans could only manage seven from 36 attempts.

Mojave King connected on back-to-back three-pointers during a third quarter stretch as the home side swished 10 of their first 16 attempts from beyond long range.

At one stage, Jackson-Cartwright had five-from-six and King four-from-five from the three-point line, as the Breakers opened a double-digit lead in the third quarter.

Head Coach Adam Forde changed the Taipans line-up to start the second half, with Bruce and Jonah Bolden getting the nod ahead of Jaylon Brown and Reyne Smith.

But this did not halt the Breakers’ surge led by Jackson-Cartwright, who found Reuben Te Rangi for another three-pointer to extend the lead to 48-37.

JACKSON-CARTWRIGHT TAKES CONTROL

One of the NBL27 MVP candidates led from the front and put his team on his back right from the opening tip-off.

Jackson-Cartwright was everywhere in the opening 20 minutes, scoring 21 of the Breakers’ 42 points in the first half in a low-scoring opening half.

The 180cm point guard swished five-of-six three-pointers across the first half as the hosts took a 42-35 lead into the main interval.

In the second half, Jackson-Cartwright got his teammates involved, finishing with 10 assists, as the Taipans’ defense had to change to quell his offensive output.

LEWIS CONTINUES TO RISE

Malique Lewis was a shining light for the Taipans and took another step forward in his NBL career in orange.

Coming off a career-high seven blocks against the 36ers in Adelaide, Lewis stepped up at the offensive end, becoming an avenue to the basket.

The former NBL Next Star also spent a mountain of time trying to corral the impact of Jackson-Cartwright.

The 202cm swingman finished with 11 points, four rebounds and three assists, but Lewis needs to continue this trajectory and become a bigger focus at the offensive end and become threat to opposition scouting reports.

WHAT’S NEXT

Cairns will now travel to Victoria for the final match of their three-game road trip against Melbourne United at John Cain Arena on Saturday night.
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‍NEW ZEALAND 98 (Jackson-Cartwright 27, Mennenga 18, King 14) def CAIRNS TAIPANS 75 (J McVeigh 16, Lewis 11, Smith 10) at Spark Arena, Auckland.

BOX SCORE