Dufelmeier the hero on night of firsts for Taipans

The CQUniversity Cairns Taipans maintained control virtually the whole game but still took a stunning triple from Tad Dufelmeier to secure a memorable 70-68 victory over the New Zealand Breakers in Tasmania on Friday night.

It was a night of plenty of firsts as it unfolded for the Taipans. The first of those was well known coming into the contest with the Snakes to play without the presence and production of Cam Oliver who has returned to the United States for family reasons.

Then there was Venky Jois who was making his debut with the Snakes as the replacement for Oliver, and Dufelmeier had banged down the door to earn his first career start based on his standout performances in the back court in recent weeks.

The game was also the first ever for the Taipans in Tasmania and they came away with a perfect 1-0 record from the Silverdome in Launceston, but it was anything but easy and to be fair, nobody expected it to be.

The Taipans worked their way to a double-figure lead through the second quarter with the lead growing to 33-19 with Nate Jawai dominating inside, and Scott Machado knocking down his second triple of the first half.

The Cairns advantage was then 19 points after yet another Jawai and-one conversion early in the second half. But the Breakers were always going to make a run and eventually they hit a three ball after missing their opening 14 attempts.

But still the Taipans were 12 up at three quarter-time but things were getting shaky with a 13-2 New Zealand run to open the fourth quarter.

The Breakers would then narrowly lead for the first time in the game twice in the dying minutes, but it was time for the Taipans to come up with game-winning plays.

The first was Cairns' first three of the second half courtesy of Jordan Ngatai before Tad Dufelmeier hit another with 7.3 seconds on the clock to give the Snakes the 70-68. That's the way the game finished after a review revealed a clear block from Jois on Corey Webster.

Nate Jawai promised a big performance for the Taipans and delivered in spades in his 150th appearances for the club. He played a season-high 30 minutes and produced 21 points and eight rebounds on 8/12 shooting from the floor and 5/6 from deep.

Tad Dufelmeier was brilliant all night too, not just by hitting the game winner and ended up with 14 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals with Scott Machado ending up with 13 points, eight assists and six rebounds.

Jordan Ngatai had another seven points and four rebounds, Mirko Djeric five points and three assists, Fabijan Krslovic three points and four boards, George Blagojevic three points, Mojave King two points and Venky Jois two points, six rebounds and the block.

Reigning NBL Coach of the Year Mike Kelly endured a challenging week with everything happening at the Snakes, and his most recent additions to the team in Dufelmeier and Jois for playing their role in sealing the result.

"I knew New Zealand wouldn't stop playing hard and once they got a sniff they really started getting downhill, getting to the basket and into attack mode - we took a backward step," he said.

"Tad has been working to get this point, to being in an NBL game, to meaningful minutes and he has been really good for us in training. 

"We've seen what he can do, it's been tough for him. He got his opportunity and has taken it with both hands.

"The same with Venky, he came in to do a job and he came in with great energy and really got us going."

Kelly reserved special praise for Jawai in his milestone match, however.

"Nate was great," he said.

"I am really proud of him, he stepped up and that was his highest minutes of the year.

"Then he wanted to come back and finish the job and had a nice play towards the end and was involved in all of that. I was really happy for Nate tonight."

Both teams found the scoring difficult early doors but the Taipans got on the board with three balls from Scott Machado and Fabijan Krslovic. Machado continued his good start to put Cairns up 8-4 before buckets to Jordan Ngatai had the Snakes lead 12-10 after a sloppy opening term.

A couple of triples from Mirko Djeric and George Blagojevic got the Taipans rolling to start the second period, before Jawai helped them take further control and head into half-time leading 39-25.

Another Jawai three-point play had the Snakes up by 19 to start the second half and even though the Breakers threatened a fightback, the Taipans had done well to weather the storm up until three quarter-time to still lead 56-44.

But it was an inevitable run New Zealand was going to go on and they opened the fourth with a 13-2 run. That had them back within a point before Cairns answered with a couple of buckets to Jawai and Machado.

However, New Zealand went on another 7-0 to take their first lead of the evening. But to the credit of the Taipans, they didn’t surrender and were soon back up three with the Ngatai triple, before holding on to win after the Dufelmeier three ball and impressive Venky Jois block.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 15

CQUNIVERSITY CAIRNS TAIPANS 70 (Jawai 21, Dufelmeier 14, Machado 13) 

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 68 (Delany 23, Webster 15, Iverson 8, Loe 8)

BOX SCORE