Full of heart Snakes overcome 36ers at home

They had to deal with the loss of their gun playmaker and falling down double-figures on two separate occasions, but the CQUniversity Cairns Taipans showed great heart to beat the Adelaide 36ers 91-88 on Wednesday night.

Since last beating the Sixers a couple of weeks ago also at the Cairns Pop-Up Arena, the Taipans put in two strong showings at home and away to the league-leading Melbourne United, and pushed the Illawarra Hawks to the brink in Wollongong on Sunday.

But the job of getting a sixth win of the season on Wednesday was made tougher when point guard Scott Machado was ruled out and with the 36ers arriving back in Cairns on the back of strong home victories against the Hawks and Perth Wildcats.

By the end of the night, though, the Snakes had thrilled the Orange Army with their never-say-die attitude.

Cam Oliver had a huge first three quarters to give them a chance and Nate Jawai was along for the ride, but in the fourth quarter it was those receiving opportunities in the absence of Machado, Kouat Noi and Majok Deng who came up especially huge.

In the fourth term alone, George Blagojevic hit two big buckets, Ngatai made two triples for eight points, Tad Dufelmeier knocked down a triple and a three-point play, and then Mojave King hit a huge three, made two crucial free-throws and then threw down the game sealing dunk.

That was the most exciting aspect of the win for the Snakes. Oliver still had 25 points and 16 rebounds for the game and Jawai 13 points and three assists, but it was those others who made the difference.

Ngatai finished with 15 points, King 14 points and five rebounds, Dufelmeier 12 points and five assists, Blagojevic eight points and four boards, Fabijan Krslovic four points and two steals, and Jarrod Kenny seven assists.

Taipans coach Mike Kelly was proud of the toughness shown by his group to fight out the win and not just settle for another credible performance.

"There was a little bit of toughness defensively down the stretch. I was just happy to see the boys sticking to it and playing through some tricky situations," Kelly said.

"It was about trying to take away some easy looks for them to get back into the game. The guys did a much better job of it in the last two and-a-half quarters. Offensively we just kept it simple and played with pace. It was really about getting stops and attacking with pace."

The Snakes started well with a couple of early buckets to Cam Oliver before a triple to Jordan Ngatai and basket to Nate Jawai for the 9-6 opening. From there Adelaide closed out the first term the better to lead 26-17 by quarter-time.

Jawai hit a three-point play early in the second quarter for Cairns but it would be their only score for more than three minutes with Adelaide opening up a 36-20 advantage.

But the Snakes responded with an 8-0 run including scores to Fabijan Krslovic and George Blagojevic, before Oliver hit some big shots on his way to 15 points at half while Jawai had 11 and the Taipans only trailed the 36ers by three at the major break.

Adelaide was able to open up another double-figure lead midway through the third quarter, but the Taipans responded once more firstly with seven quick points to Oliver, and with a big three from Tad Dufelmeier and a four-point play from Ngatai, they trailed by just two at three quarter-time.

The stage was set for a big finish and the Taipans took the lead with a Ngatai three ball with 5:30 left on the clock. Dufelmeier nailed a three too to extend the lead and King stretched it out to five.

A Dufelmeier three-point play saw the lead grow to six and then another Ngatai three-point saw it grow to seven. Despite the frantic finish, ultimately King's breakaway slam secured the three-point win.

The Taipans now have a quick turnaround to head to Sydney to take on the Kings on Saturday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 14

CQUNIVERSITY CAIRNS TAIPANS 91 (Oliver 25, Ngatai 15, King 14)

ADELAIDE 36ERS 88 (Johnson 26, McVeigh 22, Paul 18) 

BOX SCORE