Jawai imposing, McCall impresses for Snakes against Wildcats

The CQUniversity Cairns Taipans might not have got the win with a slow start and rough finish to blame, but in between the Snakes played some good basketball in their third of five games at the NBL Blitz against the Perth Wildcats.

The Snakes are still finding their feet under new coach Adam Forde at the NBL Blitz in Tasmania with the 2021/22 NBL Season proper now two weeks away, but the signs were certainly encouraging for much of Sunday's clash with the Wildcats at Ulverstone Sports and Leisure Centre.

What ended up letting the Taipans down was falling behind 13-2 in the early minutes and then after leading by four with just eight minutes left, the Wildcats went on a 22-9 run to close out the game and up winning 96-87.

However, there were good signs in between that for the Taipans in their third match at the NBL Blitz heading towards #NBL22. The Snakes ended up winning the rebound battle 48 to 35 including 15 offensive boards to 10.

They also had 29 assists on 32 made field goals while shooting 47 per cent from the field opposed to 41 per cent from Perth. So there was enough there for Forde and his coaching staff to work on with two games at the Blitz remaining.

Nate Jawai was clearly the standout performer on the afternoon for the Taipans, putting in an efficient and dominant display down low for 21 points, three assists and two rebounds in just over 20 minutes while shooting 10/13 from the floor.

Fellow big man Stephen Zimmerman was impressive for the third straight game at the Blitz with 14 points and eight rebounds while Tahjere McCall showed exciting signs with his 14 points, 13 rebounds, six assists and two steals.

Scott Machado finished with 12 points and seven assists for Cairns, Mirko Djeric 11 points and seven assists, Majok Deng nine pints, four assists and four rebounds, and Jarrod Kenny six points and two boards.

It wasn’t quite the start the Taipans were after in the opening four minutes as they conceded three turnovers and Perth led early 13-2, but the Snakes were able to work into the contest from there.

Majok Deng knocked down a three-pointer and then Nate Jawai came on and made an immediate impact with a trademark slam. It was Deng and Jawai who continued to lead the charge for the Snakes before Mirko Djeric drained a triple to level up scores.

It was Jawai who continued to dominate, though, scoring 11 points in just over five minutes of court time in the opening quarter which ended with the 'Cats narrowly leading 25-24.

Deng then scored again to give Cairns the lead to start the second period and Jawai wasn’t done yet, scoring again to stretch the Taipans lead to four, which soon became eight thanks to Scott Machado.

Djeric drained another triple to stretch the advantage to nine before Jawai came back on to give himself 15 points for the half, and with Djeric nailing a third three and Stephen Zimmerman finishing an alley-oop from Machado, Cairns went into the half-time break down just one against Perth.

It was Zimmerman's turn to have a dominant patch to open the second half and he put up seven quick points as the two teams continued to trade the lead.

Machado then had a good couple of minutes leading towards three quarter-time including knocking down a three ball and then finding Tahjere McCall with a pretty pass so he could finish well.

By the end of three, the Taipans were leading 73-72 before Zimmerman helped open up a four-point edge early in the fourth. Again, Perth closed the gap and were then able to pull away to lead by 11 with just under three minutes to go, and ending up winning by nine.

The Taipans will continue their NBL Blitz on Wednesday against the Brisbane Bullets before finishing up against the hometown Tasmania JackJumpers on Friday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL BLITZ

CQUNIVERSITY CAIRNS TAIPANS 87 (Jawai 21, Zimmerman 14, McCall 14) 

PERTH WILDCATS 96 (Law 28, Cotton 22, Majok 9)

BOX SCORE