Round 10: Taipans overcome Hawks in double OT

CQUniversity Cairns Taipans (102) def. Illawarra Hawks (101) in 2OT
Round 10 | Cairns Convention Centre 
Next Game: Taipans v Bullets, Wednesday 14 December 6:30pm AEST

SUMMARY

The CQUniversity Cairns Taipans fought back from a 16-point deficit to end up overcoming the Illawarra Hawks in double overtime 102-101 at Cairns Convention Centre on Saturday night.

The Hawks put up a terrific start to the game to lead by 11 at quarter-time on 4/7 three-point shooting and still being up five at the half.

The Taipans responded with a strong third quarter but still couldn’t shake the Hawks and eventually it was a Tyler Harvey three-pointer with 12 seconds to play that sent the game to the first overtime.

DJ Hogg and Frazier starred in the first overtime but again the two teams couldn’t be separated and eventually in the second extra period, a couple of bombs from Hogg and then strong finishes from Keanu Pinder were enough for the home team to sneak off with the one-point win.

Fresh off the hiding on Thursday to South East Melbourne, the Hawks came out strong racing to a 6-2 lead thanks to co-captains Sam Froling and Tyler Harvey. That soon became 12-6 following triples from Harvey and Deng Deng, and then 17-9 with another Harvey triple and bucket to Frazier.

Illawarra then also closed out the opening quarter with three balls from Peyton Siva and Michael Frazier to be up 27-16 after one on the back of going 4/7 from downtown to 1/5 from Cairns. The Hawks also had five extra rebounds and scored nine points off the five Snakes turnovers.

The Hawks maintained that momentum to start the second quarter and it was Frazier and Froling combining for their first 10 points to see them open up a 16-point advantage.

The Taipans did work back into the contest with DJ Hogg going on his own 8-0 scoring run. Majok Deng brought the margin back to three just before half-time but the Hawks still led 48-43 by the break.

With Froling, Frazier and Harvey combining for 35 of the 48 Illawarra points, their guns were delivering but Cairns got back into the game largely on the back of 15 rebounds in the second quarter.

The Taipans came out an inspired outfit to open the second half scoring five quick points and then Pinder scored inside to level scores up, and Bul Kuol drained a three to put them in front for the first time in the game.

They would stay there the rest of the quarter as well including another triple from Jonah Antonio and a huge drive and dunk from Sam Waardenburg over an optimistic challenging Davo Hickey.

The Snakes were on top 67-63 by three quarter-time on the back of the 24 points to 15 in the quarter, but the Hawks weren’t going to go down without a fight.

The Hawks stayed close and got back level with a triple from Siva with five and-a-half minutes to play. Frazier and Harvey then hit three balls soon after and it was the Hawks back on top with their lead out to four with a nice jumper from Siva.

It was Cairns' turn to respond and the home team delivered with the next seven points with five of them from McCall. That had them back up three, but with 12 seconds to play Harvey hit the biggest shot of the night and that tied scores up and sent it to overtime.

Frazier opened the extra period with his sixth three of the game but then McCall scored a nice bucket in the block and Hogg dropped a three from way downtown to give Cairns the two-point edge.

Frazier scored again on a tough make, though, for Illawarra to tie scores up with Cairns having possession out of a timeout with 22.5 seconds to go. A tough floater from McCall was the look the Taipans had but the result was a second overtime.

A massive offensive rebound on a missed free-throw from Deng threatened to be pivotal for Illawarra, but a Hogg three up the other end gave the Snakes the one-point edge.

Froling hit two free-throws for the Hawks but then another triple from Hogg put the home team back up two before Harvey scored the most remarkable of contested threes to beat the shot clock for Illawarra.

That was his fifth three of the game but eventually Pinder put Cairns back in front and in the end that was enough to secure the win with the Hawks unable to hit at the buzzer after Pinder's two missed free-throws.

STATISTICS

The Taipans will be relieved to have found a way to escape with the win with Tahjere McCall finishing with 23 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals.

It was Hogg who turned it up late in the fourth and the two overtime periods, though, to end up with 23 points with 5/11 from long range.

Pinder added 18 points, 14 rebounds and six assists, and Shannon Scott 12 points, 13 boards, six assists and three blocks.

Jonah Antonio also had eight points with two three-pointers while Majok Deng contributed seven points and eight rebounds, Bul Kuol six points, and Sam Waardenburg five points and a huge dunk despite being under the weather.

STATEMENTS

Head Coach Adam Forde: 

"Credit to Illawarra, that's their third game this week and they've gone to double overtime and they played hard. We were sloppy at the start and they made some tough shots at the end, but we allowed them to get their eye in at the start with some pretty average defence from our end. I feel for them because there's a lot of similarities with them and how we were last season. You could see obviously the disappointment in their faces because they played hard. I'm not trying to take anything away from what our guys did, but that's not a 2-12 team in my mind. That was a tough team that's on a three-game in six-day trip. We were just able to hold out and close it out in the end which is great. The big takeaway from us was that we were down 16 and a lot of it was our own doing, it's a work in progress."

Taipans Forward DJ Hogg:

"You definitely feel a little fatigued but in such a high intensity moment you don't feel it too much until the buzzer sounds, and then it's like 'oomph' I'm actually pretty tired. But in the moment you're not really feeling like because you feel the energy all throughout the stadium with each shot that goes in or misses. It's a great feeling and something we hang our hat on is winning games late like that and we need to do that each time if we want to go forward."