Hawks swoop in on undermanned Taipans

The Kenfrost Homes Cairns Taipans have fallen to the Illawarra Hawks on Saturday night at the Cairns Convention Centre, trailing the league leaders 75-87.

Once more missing Taran Armstrong and Tanner Groves, Cairns entered the battle undermanned to face a high-scoring and healthy Hawks lineup.

After initially allowing Illawarra to open the scoring, the Taipans took hold of the game early – putting up 11 unanswered points off the back of their impressive work on the boards.

Only looking to grow their connection, AK Gak and Kyle Adnam led the charge, with the forward slamming home a series of dunks against his former side to raise the Orange Army to their feet.

Unable to match the energy of the Taipans, the Hawks struggled to hit their shots – missing eight of their first 12 attempts – with Cairns cleaning up their misses to help build their lead.

Answering the call from their coach after an early timeout, Illawarra worked hard through the paint to bring the lead back to three-points – only for Rob Edwards to reply with a shot from deep.

Managing his troops carefully through the final minutes of the opening quarter, Head Coach Adam Forde ensured that his men knew what they were doing, with Cairns rebuilding the lead back to seven points at the break.

After struggling to open their account in the second quarter, the Taipans moved the ball inside – finding Gak who was able to keep their score ticking over and maintain their narrow lead.

In opposite fashion, Illawarra were able to hit their shots – briefly taking a single point lead before Kyrin Galloway replied in emphatic fashion. Slamming home a fast-break dunk, the forward provided the spark that Cairns needed in a tight tussle for the lead.

Immediately followed by Sam Waardenburg slamming home his own dunk, the energy returned to the Cairns Convention Centre with the Taipans looking to capitalise on the change of momentum.

As the clock wound down, the locals briefly got their head in front – before a Tyler Harvey buzzer beater returned the lead to the Hawks at the main break.

Emerging from the locker room with renewed energy, the intensity from Cairns stepped up a gear – with the defence swarming the opening attempt from Sam Froling to force a turnover.

Leading the charge as the Hawks built their lead, Harvey used his accuracy to keep them in front, whilst the Taipans struggled to match his precision.

Determined not to let them cruise away, Waardenburg stepped up to re-ignite the Taipans – bringing the Hawks back to leading by a single point as the battle entered its final term.

After steadily building his confidence in the NBL across the opening rounds, Pedro Bradshaw entered the final quarter with 11 points and 13 rebounds but was not content with his double-double performance so far.

Firing out of the break by hitting a shot from deep, the forward then immediately rejected Trey Kell at the other end as the Taipans looked to edge ahead once more.

Still controlling the rebounds, Cairns struggled to find the basket whilst Harvey continued to punish them at the other end of the court, and steadily built their lead as the game neared its end.

With the import duo of Bradshaw and Edwards restricting Illawarra from cruising to the win, the pair restricted the visitors to a 12-point win.

Closing out with an 18-point and 14 rebound performance – with half of his rebounds coming from the offensive end – Pedro Bradshaw closed out his best night to date in the NBL, continuing his steady acclimatisation to the league.

Joining his double-double performance were Sam Waardenburg (14 points and 10 rebounds) and AK Gak (12 points and 10 rebounds), who both provided high levels of energy when their teammates needed it the most.

“It’s a tricky one, because they’re playing hard. There’s no-one that’s going out there half-hearted, but they play hard,” explained Taipans Head Coach Adam Forde.

“It has to be really important that we don’t sit in the locker room and go ‘I’ll be fine when Taran and Tanner come back’, because what happens if we drop a game with those guys?

“There are still things that we need to get done – it’s still a loss, there’s still things to take away from it, good and bad. But every single one of those guys do care about it and they’re feeling it right now."

The Kenfrost Homes Cairns Taipans now face a travel-intense weekend which sees them battle in Adelaide and Melbourne – their last double-header until December. After returning home, they’ll face the Brisbane Bullets on Saturday 2 November – tickets for the 7:00pm fixture are available HERE.