Round 14: Thumping Taipans win in Brisbane

CQUniversity Cairns Taipans (107) def. Brisbane Bullets (81)
Round 14 | Nissan Arena
Next Game: Taipans v Phoenix, Sunday 8 January 3:00pm AEST

SUMMARY

No Keanu Pinder, no worries for the CQUniversity Cairns Taipans as they maintained pace for a top two finish in NBL23 with a commanding 107-81 road win over the Brisbane Bullets on Thursday night.

The Taipans arrived at Nissan Arena still missing their MVP fancy Pinder and while coming off wins without him at home to Adelaide and away to Illawarra, but this would be their third game in six days.

It didn’t show. While the Bullets had all their contracted players available with Aron Baynes back into the line-up, the Taipans put together a commanding all-round performance even with Kerry Williams stepping in for an ill head coach Adam Forde.

Cairns' aggression going to the basket helped them to 23 free-throw attempts to five in the first half on the way to a 55-37 half-time lead. 

That then blew out further with the Snakes doing as they pleased in the third quarter to lead by as much as 32 and then ending up cruising to the 26-point win.

It was Bul Kuol who got aggressive in the opening stages with six quick points to help Cairns to the 9-2 lead to already force Greg Vanderjagt into a timeout after two minutes.

Jason Cadee hit a three coming out of that timeout and Tyler Johnson hit the floor to add seven points, but the Taipans maintained their edge and forced the Bullets into six turnovers to lead 24-18 at quarter-time.

Cairns got under the skin of the Bullets led by McCall and turned it into points scoring 11 straight points to open up an 11-point lead.

Brisbane made a brief flurry but another 9-0 Taipans run saw the lead grow to 20 and only Johnson's 15 points for the Bullets limited the damage.

The Snakes still led 55-37 at the main break on the back of going 18/23 to 4/5 at the foul line with both teams combining for 6/31 from beyond the arc.

The Taipans weren’t about to let up to start the second half and they scored 11 of the first 15 points to suddenly see their lead blow out to 27. They were far from done and a couple of three balls to DJ Hogg saw that balloon to 29.

Ben Ayre hit a triple soon after and scored inside again to push the Cairns advantage out to 32 before the Snakes went into three quarter-time still leading 83-56.

Ther were some encouraging signs in the fourth for Brisbane including a couple of triples and 10 points from Kody Stattmann, but it mattered little with the Snakes rolling to the 26-point win.

STATISTICS

There was plenty to like in the Cairns performance that improves them to 13-7 in third spot on the back of going 26/35 from the foul line to 11/13 by Brisbane along with collecting 50 rebounds to 31 including 14 at the offensive end to four.

That helped the Snakes to 13 second chance points, 52 points in the paint and 20 points from the 16 turnovers forced on the lacklustre Bullets.

Sam Waardenburg delivered for Cairns in the absence of Pinder with 24 points and eight rebounds on 7/10 field goal shooting and 9/12 at the free-throw line.

DJ Hogg added 23 points and six rebounds, Ben Ayre 20 points and four assists, Tahjere McCall 16 points, six boards, six assists and five steals, and Bul Kuol 14 points and six assists.

Shannon Scott contributed four points, four rebounds and four assists, Majok Deng three points and four boards, Mirko Djeric two points and two rebounds, and Josh Davey six rebounds.

STATEMENTS

Stand In Head Coach Kerry Williams:

"It was just about the guys staying together. We spoke about it at the start that we had to stay together and play through everything. It was all about us you know, we had to deal with Fordey not being there and he's our voice. He's our leader so it was great that we were able to have this performance and it just goes to show that our process works. Guys are trusting in what we do and that was pleasing."

Taipans Guard Tahjere McCall:

"That meant the world right now, I told the guys that the next step of our team is that when you're up, you have to put teams away. That's what championship teams do, that's what winning teams do. If you look at it, everybody didn’t play their best basketball but we played together especially defensively and that's how we're going to win games. For us to keep our defensive edge and our rebounding edge, that meant a lot to us. We try and build on it every game and all we try to do is grow so it was important."