Round 11: Taipans hold out Bullets at home

CQUniversity Cairns Taipans (85) def. Brisbane Bullets (76)
Round 11 | Cairns Convention Centre
Next Game: Taipans at JackJumpers, Saturday 17 December 4:30pm AEST

SUMMARY
A season-high 23 points from Bul Kuol helped the CQUniversity Cairns Taipans shake off a slow start to beat the Brisbane Bullets 85-76 at Cairns Convention Centre on Wednesday night to open NBL Indigenous Round.

Cairns had too much energy and firepower as the game wore on. The Snakes hit five triples to work their way on top in the first quarter, then dominated the second term and opened up a double-figure advantage in the third on the way to the nine-point win.

It's an important win for the Taipans who improve to 9-5 before taking on the Tasmania JackJumpers in Hobart on Saturday, and then the Perth Wildcats back at home on Tuesday.

The Bullets were playing with a third coach in three weeks and the Greg Vanderjagt era started brightly with the first five points of the game courtesy of DJ Mitchell and Aron Baynes.

Shannon Scott got the Taipans on the board with a triple, but Baynes had his best start to a game in the NBL with the next three buckets as the Bullets kept feeding him inside and he put his team on top 11-3.

It was Bul Kuol who shot the Snakes back into the contest with consecutive three-pointers. Then after Harry Froling hit one of his own, the Taipans built some momentum with the next seven points topped off with a third long-range bomb from Kuol.

Cairns ended the opening period with a Ben Ayre three-pointer and as a team they went 5/9 for the quarter to be up 21-18 despite the six turnovers.

Things really dried up for the Bullets to start the second quarter, in fact they only scored one lone point in the first five minutes and didn’t nail a field goal until the six-minute mark courtesy of Gorjok Gak.

Cairns had built a nine-point lead with Tahjere McCall finishing at the rim before Andrew White III opened his NBL account with a three-pointer. 

DJ Hogg scored all his eight points for the half in the final couple of minutes to ensure the Snakes were in control 40-30 at the major break.

There was a scary moment to open the second half with Sam Waardenburg finishing a layup for Cairns but then collected inadvertently in the head by a flying Mitchell. 

He wouldn’t return due to concussion but the Taipans continued to pull away and led by 14 when development player Josh Davey got out on the break for his first NBL points.

White's second three of his debut appearance at least kept Brisbane close and by three quarter-time Cairns still maintained the eight-point advantage.

The Snakes remained on top most of the rest of the way too and it was a terrific shooting night from Kuol doing the job for the home team. He hit his fourth three of the night to give him 10 points in the fourth quarter to put the Taipans up 15 with four minutes to play.

A four-point play from Nathan Sobey did briefly put some life back in the contest but they couldn’t get any closer than six with the Taipans going on to win by nine.

STATISTICS

Bul Kuol was the star of the night for the Taipans to end up top-scoring with 23 points to go with four rebounds and three assists on 4/5 shooting from beyond the arc.

DJ Hogg added 15 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals for the Snakes, Tahjere McCall 13 points, eight boards and seven assists, and Keanu Pinder 12 points and 15 rebounds.

Ben Ayre added eight points, three rebounds and three assists while Shannon Scott contributed five points, two rebounds and two blocks, Sam Waardenburg four points, Majok Deng three points, and Josh Davey his first two NBL points.

STATEMENTS

Head Coach Adam Forde: 

"I won't lie but I don’t know why, that's the most frustrated I've felt this season. I feel like it's the last hurdle for us to overcome and yet where I probably value it with everything else we're accomplishing, I didn’t prioritise it as that high and it's execution at the offensive end. We have glimpses of it and it's taken me a moment to process it. My sense and feel is that we're at the halfway mark of the season and we've got nine wins. If we didn’t blow that game in Adelaide we're on a four-game winning streak and we're competing for a top-two spot. We've got the No. 1 defence in the league right now and that's based on the actual defensive rating, turnovers generated and all that stuff. Yet we've got the second worst offence and it's really starting to frustrate me, and annoy me. It's nothing to do with the personnel because we're very capable, it's trying to get key guys in particular positions. I want to be further down the track than where we are. The good thing is we have a string of games coming up that's going to help us build a bit of momentum rolling through."

Taipans Guard Ben Ayre:

"I think we're all pretty positive out there but you could feel that we would kind of go up and down. You can tell we've got a long way to go with the feel out there, but I thought some guys came in and brought some energy when they needed to. Tahj led the way I felt to pick the energy up when we needed it and led us."