Round 13: Taipans v Hawks

CQUNIVERSITY CAIRNS TAIPANS V ILLAWARRA HAWKS
(WIN Entertainment Centre, 6:30pm)
Watch live on ESPN via Kayo Sports or Foxtel
Watch together at the Reef Hotel Casino (official away game venue)
Next home game: Sunday 8 January, 3:00pm TICKETS

LAST MEETING

Defeating an 18-point deficit on NYE was good, and so was fighting back from a 16-point deficit against the Hawks back on December 10.

Cairns hosted Illawarra for a thrilling double overtime affair to win 102-101, with Tahjere McCall finding form after returning from injury with 23 points and seven rebounds.

But, it was DJ Hogg who made the difference in the fourth and got it done in both OT periods, for 23 points and five three-pointers.

LINE-UP

Keanu Pinder is set to miss three games after sustaining an injury against United in Melbourne’s open-air game, just before Christmas.

He was sidelined for the New Year’s Eve game and is set to miss the team’s road trip to Illawarra and Brisbane this week.  

For the Hawks, Peyton Siva has been ruled out with a shoulder injury while Michael Frazier will be subject to a game-time fitness test. 

LOOK FOR

 Two words: Shannon Scott. The point guard celebrated his 30^th in December and finished his birthday month leading the team in scoring for the first time (31 points, 5-7 3P) shooting at 73% from the field, to go with four boards and four assists.

Meanwhile, in Pinder’s absence Taipans development player Josh Davey led the team in rebounds (five) on NYE and has travelled as the injury replacement this week.

LATEST WORDS

"The good thing is, we’ve played Illawarra before and they’ve also played tonight [on New Year’s Eve] so we’ll get some good content rolling in. It’ll be a quick turnaround, team ops-wise, but the reality is there’s still some things we need to work on. The third quarter wasn’t great. But it’s good to know that if we get it done on the defensive end, that generates our best offence,” – Head Coach Adam Forde

“I think it affects them more so than us, especially on the free-throw line. But, I do love it when we have a packed out crowd! It brings a lot of energy, and you can just feel it throughout everybody, it picks us up. There were a little quiet though, in the second quarter and third! But, for reasons. We were down. But when we started catching up, you can just feel the whole arena starting to vibrate,” – DJ Hogg