Game Preview: Taipans v Hawks

Entering the weekend firmly locked in first, the Hawks will travel to the Far North to face a hungry Taipans lineup, who are looking to return to their winning ways on their home court.

Point guard Taran Armstrong will rest on the sidelines for the fixture with his ankle injury delaying his return, resulting in Nominated Injury Replacement Tad Dufelmeier remaining in the lineup.

Where and When

Saturday, October 19 at the Cairns Convention Centre (7:00pm AEST)

How to Follow

Watch: Live on ESPN

Live Updates: Taipans X

Stats: Box Score

What’s Already Happened

Their Last Battle: Cairns Taipans (75) v Illawarra Hawks (102) in Round 1

First facing off to open their seasons, the Taipans and Hawks haven’t seen each other since their battle at HoopsFest. Despite going down by what was their largest loss of the season, Cairns were able to hold close with Illawarra for most of the contest before the Hawks dominated the final quarter.

Now traveling to Cairns, the Hawks will walk onto a court that hasn’t been kind to them across the last decade – winning only four games across 16 visits to the Cairns Convention Centre.

However, this is a largely different team compared to past Hawks squads that have made the trip to Cairns. Widely considered a post-season team, Illawarra have opened their season 4-1 – winning by an average of 15 points – and most recently took down the JackJumpers by 33 points.

After competing in four games across nine days, the Taipans are walking onto their homecourt to end a six-day break for them – giving them a chance to regroup following their rough weekend.

Cairns faced two tough losses across Round 4, however Head Coach Adam Forde is focused on learning from the defeats and is not allowing anyone to blame them on their missing players.

Turning up their scoring output will be a major focus for Cairns, after averaging 80 points across their most recent losses but scoring 90+ across every win so far. This will be a point of emphasis for Rob Edwards, who prior to the last game in Sydney was averaging 22+ points per game but struggled to hit his shots without Taran Armstrong to handle the ball.

A piece of the Taipans roster who will be looking to expand his time on court is Alex Higgins-Titsha, who made history in Sydney on his debut whilst replacing Tanner Groves in the lineup.

Despite only playing 5 minutes, he blocked four shots – the second most of any NBL player in a game this season, the most by a development player on debut, and the equal most by a Taipan on debut. Also contributing five points and four rebounds, Higgins-Titsha will be hoping to hit the court once more, with his coach describing him as the spark they needed.

Player to Watch

Despite struggling in the last contest against Sydney, Kyrin Galloway is already on track to have his best NBL season to date. Shooting the ball at 69% - a 27% increase on last season – whilst also doubling his scoring output, the forward has been quick to acclimatise to working under Head Coach Adam Forde.

With center Tanner Groves remaining on the sideline for the upcoming rounds, Galloway is set to continue seeing more minutes on the court – an opportunity that has already seen him spend time in the starting lineup.

What’s Been Said

Taipans Head Coach Adam Forde:

“Illawarra have got a lot of weapons, and there’s a lot to work on and focus in on. But you can’t get too narrowed in on something because another area will hurt you.

“We’ve just got to keep stacking days, and we’ve got to stick to the process.

“I’ve put it to the boys in the sense of do we want to use the excuse of having Tanner and Taran out, or do they want to knuckle up and show that they’re fully capable.”

Taipans guard Rob Edwards:

“We obviously know where Illawarra are at in the league and how they’ve been playing, but we just have to refine our things and learn from our losses and learn from our wins and continue to get better each day.

“I feel that basketball is just adjusting, learning something new about yourself, learning new things about the opponents, and we just need to figure it out as a group. 

“That’s what we’ve been practicing through, and that’s kind of been our motto through the whole season – just what’s next?”

The Lineups

Taipans

PG – Kyle Adnam / Jackson Makoi / Tad Dufelmeier

SG – Rob Edwards / Jonah Antonio

SF – Pedro Bradshaw / Alex Higgins-Titsha

PF – Kyrin Galloway / Dillon Stith / Kody Stattmann

C – Sam Waardenburg / Akoldah Gak

Hawks

PG – Trey Kell III / Will Hickey

SG – Tyler Harvey / Hyunjung Lee

SF – Wani Swaka Lo Buluk / Todd Blanchfield / Daniel Grida

PF – Darius Days / Mason Peatling

C – Sam Froling / Lachlan Olbrich

Ins and Outs 

Taipans

Ins – Tad Dufelmeier, Alex Higgins-Titsha, Kody Stattmann

Outs – Taran Armstrong (ankle), Tanner Groves (calf)

Hawks

No changes