Cairns drop crucial game against Sixers

Adelaide have kept their flickering NBL finals hopes alive, continuing their late-season resurrection with a clinical 88-71 victory over the CQUniversity Cairns Taipans. The blowout result was extra costly for the Taipans (11-14), who would have catapulted to fourth place with a victory but instead slump to eighth.

Lat Mayen (15 points) top-scored off the bench for the Taipans, whose disastrous outing was further soured when centre Sam Waardenburg, back after missing three games with concussion, went off after copping an accidental elbow to the face from Nick Marshall in the closing minutes.

Undermanned Cairns, without Sam Mennenga (back), Bobi Klintman (concussion) and Jonah Antonio (calf), needed more from star import guards Patrick Miller (eight points at 13 per cent) and Tahjere McCall (six points at 25 per cent).

Mayen was active off the bench early with nine first-quarter points in four minutes but sharpshooting Dejan Vasiljevic was unstoppable at the other end with 11 points (four layups and a three-pointer) to give Adelaide a 28-25 edge at the opening break.

From that point the result was never in doubt.

The Sixers smashed the Snakes in all facets, outrebounding them 17-7 in the second term and monstering them 36-6 in the paint to open up a 15-point halftime buffer.

Cairns missed 15 of their 17 second-quarter shot attempts and coughed up nine first-half turnovers, thanks to a combination of Trey Kell's active hands and their own butterfingers.

Adelaide extended their advantage to 75-53 at three-quarter time before starting the fourth stanza with Vasiljevic's fifth triple and ended it with a spectacular Jason Cadee-to-Trentyn Flowers alley-oop.