Cairns fall short to Sydney

Returning from the two-week FIBA break, the Kenfrost Homes Cairns Taipans fell short to the Sydney Kings, 75-81 at the Cairns Convention Centre on Friday night.

With Pedro Bradshaw remaining on the sidelines, Kyrin Galloway joined his fellow forward on the bench after spraining his ankle prior to the FIBA break. As a series of former Taipans turned Kings stepped onto their former home court, Sydney were also missing their own Galloway, with Jaylin joining his brother on the sideline.

After scoring the opening basket, the King’s focused their defensive efforts on Rob Edwards to prevent him from repeating his Round 9 masterclass – freeing up Sam Waardenburg to open the scoring for the Taipans.

Returning to the Convention Centre for the first time since 2021, Cameron Oliver looked to kick off his night strongly – before being rejected by Tanner Groves, with the block setting up Taran Armstrong who helped build a steady lead for the home side.

Bouncing back up, Oliver pulled Sydney back into the game with a quick 10 points whilst Armstrong and Waardenburg worked hard to keep the scoreboard ticking over – with the forward pulling down five offensive rebounds in under five minutes.

With both teams relying on their star players to put points on the board throughout the opening quarter, coaches Adam Forde and Brian Goorjian utilised their rotations to give their starters a rest – handing the task of building the lead to their bench units.

Leading the defensive efforts against his former team, Jackson Makoi helped restrict the visitors scoreless for over three minutes to help build a Taipans lead at the first break, with the guard beating the buzzer to build the margin to six points.

Staring down the league leading rebounding side, Waardenburg partnered with AK Gak to nearly double Sydney’s efforts on the glass early on to give their teammates crucial second chances as the home side maintained their lead.

In his third game since returning from injury, Armstrong’s confidence had clearly returned – blasting past the Kings defence on his way to 15 points at the break as the hosts held onto the lead.

Whilst the guard piled on the points, Waardenburg continued his efforts on the glass as the Taipans continued to nearly double Sydney’s rebounding efforts – giving the home side an extra 12 looks to give them the edge in the close contest.

Returning from the main break in hot form, the Kings quickly took the lead whilst restricting Cairns’ looks at the basket, with Rob Edwards breaking the drought to keep the Taipans in touch.

Continuing his trend of strong performances on the defensive end, Jonah Antonio locked down Jaylen Adams – forcing a crucial turnover and inspiring his teammates who also raised the intensity to give Cairns a series of late looks.

With the game in the balance, Makoi found his spot to hit a shot from deep, before blasting past the defence to find the basket again to give Edwards and Antonio a chance to rest.

Now feeling much more confident, Oliver rediscovered his form from his last time in Cairns – building his total to 26 points to lead his side, alongside nine rebounds and three blocks.

Opposite him, Tanner Groves also found his own streak of form. Initially hitting a three directly over Oliver, the center dominated the paint on both ends of the court to tidy up Sydney’s misses and send himself to the stripe.

Working through the rotations, the Taipans bench unit ensured that they made the most of their court time with every player maintaining a positive plus/minus, with the unit handing crucial chances to rest to the starters.

After reaching a double-double, Waardenburg was forced to sit out the final minutes of the game due to cramping, with Edwards and Armstrong stepping up to pull the Kings back to within reach.

With the clock winding down, Antonio continued his strong defensive performance grab a stray pass and earn a chance to tie the game. Giving the ball to his point guard, Armstrong looked ready to slam home a dunk – before the ball bounced out, and Sydney raced away whilst on their way to the win.

Putting up a career high 28 points, with three rebounds, one assist and two steal, Taran Armstrong led Cairns’ efforts on the offensive end whilst also drawing an impressive seven fouls on the defensive end – the highest across both teams.

Despite leaving the game early due to cramping, Sam Waardenburg wrapped up his night with a double-double performance – with 15 points, 10 rebounds and two assists – whilst Rob Edwards contributed 10 points, five rebounds, two assists and a steal.

"Guys are coming in early, and they're doing extras in the afternoon, and we're doing all the things right to prepare," said Taipans Head Coach Adam Forde.

"Rob had a tough game - there were really good looks in the first half that didn't drop, and then Sydney just turned up the physicality in the second half which frustrated him, and then it sort of broke a lot of what we were trying to do.

"With KG not available, and Waardenburg also out for a good stretch there, we put the focus on the rebounding – it has to be a collective effort. We can't just sit there and assume that the bigs will take care of it, the guards have got to get in on it too.

"I think now we're putting so much focus on getting the win rather than just playing to win - you get that with a young group, and we need a little bit of stability. I don't think me yelling at them is going to fix it. We know what we're doing wrong, and we know the areas we need to fix."

The Kenfrost Homes Cairns Taipans will now hit the road for a double-header – first flying into Tasmania to face the JackJumpers, before venturing into John Cain Arena for their fourth and final time this season to face the South East Melbourne Phoenix. They’ll then return home to host the Perth Wildcats on Saturday 14 December at 7:00pm – tickets available HERE.